A guide to self-assembly
Imagine gently shaking a box of Lego building blocks, and then looking inside to find a series of complete structures. Self-assembly doesn’t happen in the playroom, but Vinothan Manoharan, an assistant professor of chemical engineering and physics at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), wants to make it happen in the laboratory to treat life-threatening diseases or manufacture useful objects. “It would be nice to make interesting stuff out of it,” Manoharan said. “It may also be useful to prevent self-assembly in diseases where it matters — and there are lots of diseases, like HIV, where it matters.” Manoharan explained the physics of self-assembly and its huge potential for the world of biology in a lecture — “The New Science of Self-Assembly: From Living Things to New Technology” — Friday night at the Science Center. The hourlong talk was aimed at the nonscientist and came with a humorous series of disclaimers that...