Look familiar? It is the Fine Motion Controller for Molecular Assembly designed by K. Eric Drexler and Ralph Merkle. You can read a little description here. The short of the long is it is a device to hold and orientate molecules. The yellow and gray keg-looking thing on top it what it's holding with an arrangement of flaps and fingers. Each finger is connected to one of the blue rings in the middle; turning those moves the struts. I am thinking of trying to do something with this over the next couple of weeks, not rebuild it though. I was reading the linked article when I came across the words "in a complete system..." and went flush. My intent is to add the little levers and cams to make it work and simulate it working. I think it will be tricky, so tricky that I am considering deleting all this right now and just post some more beautiful DNA stuff I've been working on, but the big SME conference is in a couple of weeks, and this just might be the hype they need.
I'm just kidding about the hype stuff. Actually I don't know where devices like this still fit in the roadmap, but it should be a fun challenge anyway.
MTF
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