# Is a 3D nano printer really a molecular assembler? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 10, 2015, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-3d-nano-printer-really-a-molecular-assembler/730599 "2015-09-10T23:23:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-3d-nano-printer-really-a-molecular-assembler/730599/21 "2015-09-18T20:11:39Z")
Keen! I wonder if this would be an approach to time-delay medication: encapsulate the dosage inside a cage of DNA molecules – a structure that doesn’t encode any actual genetic information – say just an endless chain of AAAAAA (no GTC) – and when the framework dissolves, the medication is released. Tiny time capsules… More accurate than just wax! ---
**Author:** ![protoboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@protoboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/protoboard)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-3d-nano-printer-really-a-molecular-assembler/730599/22 "2015-09-19T03:08:56Z")
I think someday the IBM demonstration will be even more legendary than another thing that happened in 1989, Tim Berners-Lee’s first paper describing Web technology. ---
**Author:** ![sweat209](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@sweat209](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweat209)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-3d-nano-printer-really-a-molecular-assembler/730599/23 "2015-09-19T23:41:17Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > All kinds of possibilities. > > For instance, a Star Trek replicator might do subassemblies: making up vats of molecules first, then chains of molecules, than clumps of chains, and finally the desired tissue, such as chicken-flesh for a chicken-salad-sandwich. > > The storage tanks might have the more commonly-used molecules already on site, to save one step in the assembly. (Why combine oxygen and hydrogen…when you can have big tanks of water?) > > Or…who can know? Maybe they use “transporter” technology to duplicate matter from stored templates. I’m eating exactly the same chunk of chicken you are, duplicated by a transporter, atom by atom. > > Anything we can say on the subject is necessarily “nonsense” because there’s no way to know if it’s right or wrong. Base on the wikipedia page molecular assembler include hypothetical machines that manipulate individual atoms. > **[Molecular assembler](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_assembler)** > > A molecular assembler, as defined by K. Eric Drexler, is a "proposed device able to guide chemical reactions by positioning reactive molecules with atomic precision". A molecular assembler is a kind of molecular machine. Some biological molecules such as ribosomes fit this definition. This is because they receive instructions from messenger RNA and then assemble specific sequences of amino acids to construct protein molecules. However, the term "molecular assembler" usually refers to theoretic... A nano printer would not manipulate individual atoms but would be spitting out molecules. It would print molecule by molecule to build stuff. It may not be able to cut or move molecule or molecules. Where molecular assembler would be able to move atoms around. > [@](#): > > We don’t know that. It’s quite possible that it does require exactly that: a big set of supply bins filled with atoms (perhaps suspended in gaseous solution.) It’s fictional; it’s whatever the producers say (…and whatever the fans accept! We have a minor form of veto, when we all get together and say, “Nah!”) A molecular assembler and nano printer would definitely 100% need bin for every thing it is working with. If it does not have the raw materials it can’t print or build any thing. You can’t make elements. The only way a star trek replicator would work will you will not need a bin of set molecule or element is I see. 1 Step even more complex than nano printer or molecular assembler where by manipulating proteins and electrons turning it into any element you want 2 chemical reaction 3 turning energy into matter would require energy of a star. One problem with working with atoms is base on the Uncertainty Principle. You can never no 100% where atom is. So this will make it very hard to manipulate individual atoms. And if you can’t manipulate individual atoms you can’t build any thing even some thing as small as a human hair or speck of dust!! ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2015, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-3d-nano-printer-really-a-molecular-assembler/730599/24 "2015-09-20T00:59:25Z")
> [@sweat209](#): > > . . . You can’t make elements. . . . Plutonium. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-3d-nano-printer-really-a-molecular-assembler/730599.md?page=1)