Introduction

It may be said that at some level cells are the building blocks of all living things. The most basic of all organisms are made up of single cells, and higher organisms, such as animals and humans, are made of a large number of cells all arranged in a specific way.

Because the nanoscale is the scale of biology, there has been an explosion of new knowledge and new ideas in the biological sciences. This has been the result of significant advances in static measurement techniques such as the surface force apparatus (SFA), the atomic force microscope (AFM), and the scanning tunneling microscope (STM). Moreover, optical techniques can be employed for single molecule detection and analysis. With explosive improvements in computer architecture, molecular dynamics (MD) and its derivatives (nonequilibrium molecular dynamics, NEMD) are now being employed to study the motion of ions and proteins in a flowing solution and the conformation of proteins and other macromolecules in a static medium.

The links between nanotechnology and biology are numerous. Entire devices for the rapid analysis of proteins, drug delivery, biochemical sensing, and other applications are being developed at a rapid pace. Entire books are being published on biomedical applications at the nanoscale (Malsch, 2005; Ciofalo et al., 1999). Artificial and implantable pumping systems employing nanopore membranes are being developed for filtering proteins and ions for use as a renal assist device (Fissell, 2006) (see Figure 4.1).