It takes 20 milliseconds for a nascent protein to fold into its functional conformation. It takes 40 months of processor time on current systems to simulate that folding. With terascale systems, we'll reduce this time to one day, a thousand times quicker. We have also been examining ways to enhance our investment in nanoscale science and engineering. This will take us three orders of magnitude smaller than most of today's human-made devices.
Nanotechnology is the ability to manipulate matter one atom or molecule at a time.
Nanostructures are at the confluence of the smallest of human-made devices and the large molecules of living systems. Microelectromechanical systems are now approaching this same scale. This means we are now at the point of connecting machines to individual cells. Problems can no longer be attacked from solely a reductionist approach. Only through mapping and nourishing linkages between components within a system can we truly reflect and probe the wholeness of the world that we study.