Hailed as one of the key areas of nanoscience likely to shape future scientific research, self-assembly offers the most promising route to true molecular nanotechnology. Focusing on this dynamic new field, Self Assembly: The Science of Things That Put Themselves Together explores nature's self-assembly of structures, the use of it to build engineered systems, and the latest advances in the field. Reflecting the inherent progress of the science of self-assembly, this definitive book first delves into natural self-assembling systems. It addresses crystal growth, soap films, and micelles; examines how nature builds viruses, proteins, and ribosomes; and introduces the protein folding problem. The author then discusses how physicists, chemists, biologists, and engineers are applying nature's principles to self-assemble everything from DNA cubes to millimeter-scale electronic circuits. The final chapters cover theoretical and experimental approaches to understand the phenomenon of self-assembly and overcome its various challenges. With practical activities, profiles of leading experts, chapter highlights, exercises, and references, Self Assembly provides the most current authoritative information on this exciting branch of nanoscience.

Designing small structures necessitates an a priori understanding of various device behaviors. The way to gain such understanding is to construct, analyze, and interpret the proper mathematical model.

Through such models, Modeling MEMS and NEMS illuminates microscale and nanoscale phenomena, thereby facilitating the design and optimization of micro- and nanoscale devices. After some introductory material, a review of continuum mechanics, and a study of scaling, the book is organized around phenomena. Each chapter addresses a sequence of real devices that share a common feature. The authors abstract that feature from the devices and present the mathematical tools needed to model it. They construct, analyze, and interpret a series of models of increasing complexity, then at the end of the chapter, they return to one of the devices described, apply the model to it, and interpret the analysis.

In the beginning, the world of microdevices was dominated by experimental work and the development of fabrication techniques. As it matures, optimization and innovative designs are moving to the forefront. Modeling MEMS and NEMS not only provides the practical background and tools needed to design and optimize microdevices but it also helps develop the intuitive understanding that can lead to developing new and better designs and devices.