ABSTRACT
The BioMolecular Self-Assembly project, completed for the TED Global Conference in 2012, is a project undertaken in collaboration with molecular biologist Arthur Olson at the Scripps Research Institute, and Autodesk Inc. This project demonstrates molecular self- assembly through tangible and physical models. The geometry and material components are based on various molecular structures, including the tobacco plant virus, a ferritin protein assembly, and catechol dioxygenase enzyme. The Chiral Self-Assembly project aims to explore self-assembly further by demonstrating self-sorting and error-correcting structures. When a number of self-similar parts are shaken randomly, the yellow-colored parts and the black-colored parts individually organize themselves into separate solid-colored dodecahedrons showing separation and self-selection. Both projects were constructed with the same material components to enable self- assembly. Each of the glass flasks contains a number of plastic parts with embedded magnets. The magnet patterns dictated the correct local structure and produced programmable bindings.
