Bits and Atoms

Podcast: ITConversations / Fab Labs auf der Pop!Tech 2005 mit Neil Gershenfeld (Director, MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms)

The most advanced manufacturing plant is not one of our sophisticated chip fabs, rather it is exemplified by our own cellular machinery. Our nucleic acids and ribosomes are essentially a self-encoding molecular computer able to assemble and disassemble the cell’s own structure. The ultimate goal of the lab’s research is to perfect macroscopic assembly from microscopic parts in order to make anything at any scale. As the inventiveness of student research shows, the market for personal fabrication is not reproduction of what you can already buy, instead it is the creation of personal objects.