The following collection of material is an introduction to cross-disciplinary efforts centering on the study and control of living systems. Cross-disciplinary interactions in the field of biology are not new. Mendel's work in genetics was a fusion of biology and the mathematical science of statistics. The structure of DNA was the result of a successful merger of chemistry, biology and the physics of x-ray diffraction. The fruits of molecular biology are evident in the plethora of new drugs and medical treatment approaches emerging today. The cell is, perhaps, the paradigm for the "nanomachine" demonstrating the richness of function available in the macromolecular world. In fact, textbooks exist from the early '90s on microstructures in biology (ref.1).
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