Molecular next generation

NAMD [7] was born of frustration with the maintainability of previous locally developed parallel molecular dynamics codes. The primary goal of being able to hand the program down to the next generation of developers is reflected in the acronym NAMD Not (just) Another Molecular Dynamics code. Specific design requirements for NAMD were to run in parallel on the group s then recently purchased workstation cluster [8] and to use the fast multipole algorithm [9] for efficient full electrostatics evaluation as implemented in DPMTA [10]. 

Hemin is shown on the right in Figure 22-7. It is shown beside the model of chlorophyll A to emphasize the astonishing similarity. The portions within dotted lines identify the differences. Except for the central metal atom, tl.e differences are all on the periphery of these cumbersome molecules. We cannot help wondering how nature managed to standardize on this molecular skeleton for molecules with such different functions. We cannot avoid a feeling of impatience as we await the clarification of the possible relationship, a clarification that will surely be provided by scientists of the next generation. 

In addition to the self-spreading lipid bilayer, it was also found that a lipid mono-layer showed similar spreading behavior on a hydrophobic surface (Figure 13.6) [51]. By fabricating an appropriate hydrophobic surface pattern, the spreading area and direction can be easily controlled. For both the self-spreading bilayer and monolayer, non-biased molecular transportation is an important key concept for the next generation of microfiuidic devices. 

Since the discovery of SWNTs, they have been expected to become the building blocks of the next generation of functional nanomaterials. However, their strong cohesive property and poor solubility have restricted the use of SWNTs for fundamental and applied research fields. One method to overcome these problems is to make the SWNTs more soluble by wrapping them with polymers [31]. At the same time, the fabrication of high-performance carbon nanotube (CNT)-based composites is driven by the ability to create anisotropy at the molecular level to obtain appropriate functions. 

The increase of the molecular mass proceeds much more rapidly than the space available and means that after a few generations, there will not be enough room to fit in all of the required units of the next generation. The result is that the chemistry at a certain generation cannot be complete and less than 100% chemical conversion will result. It is of interest to study dendrimers up to this limit to find the effect of such extreme crowding. 

Poly(benzyl ether) dendrimers have several unique optical and photochemical properties. In particular, it is quite interesting that some photochemical events are considerably affected by the molecular size and morphology of the dendrimer molecules. These examples, together with those by other researchers [2], will provide a new strategy toward next-generation, nanoscopic photofunctional materials. 

Apart from the chemical technology developments mentioned above, metabolic pathway and flux engineering will have an increasing impact on the way multi-step organic syntheses are carried out in the fine-chemicals industry. For the next generation of microbial conversions, the challenge of molecular biology is to ... 

In the following section, we will show how radiation chemical reactions are useful for the molecular design of functional organic materials by taking our recent studies on next-generation resist polymers and organic semiconductors as examples. 

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