RESEARCH
Living things including human beings are all made up of molecules. The molecules of life play great roles such as energy transduction, information processing, molecule syntheses, and self-replication. Molecules produced by men presently are relatively simple compared to those in nature. My rationale is that it must be possible, however, to make artificial molecules that can, like in life, transduce energy, process information, synthesize molecules, and self-replicate, since synthetic chemistry can produce novel molecules. Furthermore, artificial molecules can accomplish things natural molecules cannot. I name such molecular systems with sophisticated functions MOLECULAR DEVICES and am studying how to make higher-functioning molecules through the cycle of the design, synthesis, and evaluation of novel molecules.