Molecular Machines and Synthetic Motors: Active Motion on Nanoscales

Molecular machines operate under nonequilibrium conditions and extract chemical energy from their environment to perform a variety of biological functions in the cell. Synthetic nanomotors also use chemical energy to effect directed motion, although they have no moving parts. The talk will show that the theoretical descriptions of molecular machines and chemically-powered nanomotors have much in common. In addition, the mechanisms by which single motors operate, and how collections of motors can actively self- assemble to form more complex structures will be described.