The nature of progress in nanopatterning

Developments in nanotechnology are making increasing demands on our ability to manipulate materials to designed patterns and structures. Patterning at increasingly diminished scales becomes very challenging, particularly with a view to manufacturing reproducible structures en masse. In fact Kelly recently argued that 'There are strict limits for which one-off fabrication is possible, but manufacture is not' [1]. Kelly was referring to top-down manufacturing processes and while activity in the field remains high and fruitful, there is at least as much research into bottom-up processes including self-assembly. In this issue, researchers at SASTRA University in India report programmable biomimetic self-assembly of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) using proteins [2]. The process uses changes in the surface charge and conformation of an unfolding protein, showing promise for biomedical applications and nanobiotechnology.