It seems a lot of people are interested in sorters of one type or another and with good reason. I was thinking it might be interesting/entertaining to build one. The type I have in mind right now is based on the centripetal force, basically a nanoscale centrifuge. I am sure anyone that has taken a general chemistry class is familiar with type you drop test tubes in and let rip. I think I could recreate this with a diamond hub with capped carbon nanotubes radiating outward like test tubes. I could even try to use all my diamond horological parts to start and stop the rotation, maybe stop the rotation in a precise way so the tubes are in a known position.
It would be neat to pack these tubes with various things[
chunks of DNA
molecules trapped in C60s
amino acids
whatever
]run a big old simulation on it, then on the last frame of the simulation cut the tube open to see the position of the contents.
Anyone have any thoughts on this?
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3 comments:
The Pascaline seems easier, and you haven't really done it yet. One project at a time. :)
More practically, molecular sorting equipment may require ab initio methods because the price configuration of local electric fields will be of significant importance. (Note I say "may", there might be ways to do that without ab initio methods, but it would probably require MM software optimized for the purpose.)
Your right; the challenge does add to the appeal!
So that's one vote for centrifuge.
I give up.
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