DNA as Clay

DNA as Clay

Hoffmann, Roald
American Scientist 82, no. 4 (1994): 308–311

“Chemists are builders by nature, master riggers of the atomic stuff. Single molecules of moderate complexity under their belt, they now long to move on to the construction of more elaborate structures. The pull of the architectonic metaphor is strong (and based in childhood play), so people have naturally thought of building-block, ball-and-stick, Tinkertoy, and assembly-line construction at the molecular level. Chemists have ingeniously designed small modular units of varying rigidity that can be assembled or assemble themselves, or that they wish would assemble, into larger, ordered structures of substantial complexity.”

— Roald Hoffmann