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Have you ever wondered
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how things are built within our bodies?
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Why our bodies can regrow and repair themselves,
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and how we can pass on genes
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from one generation to the next?
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Yet, none of our man-made objects have these traits;
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they're simply thrown away when they break
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and they definitely can't reproduce.
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The answer lies in something called self assembly.
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Self assembly is a system where unordered parts
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come together in an organized structure,
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completely on their own.
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This means that a pile of parts on your desk should,
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in theory, be able to move around on their own,
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find one another,
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and build something useful.
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This seems impossible,
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like Transformers
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but it's exactly how our bodies are built,
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how our immune system works,
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and why we can reproduce.
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Self assembly is the factory and copy machines within our bodies
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that make proteins fold and DNA replicate.
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It's a process that not only happens
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in the biological and chemical world,
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but is a phenomenon that can be seen from magnets
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social networks,
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the formations of cities and galaxies,
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to name just a few.
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In biology and chemistry,
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self assembly is everywhere,
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from atomic interactions,
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cellular replication
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to DNA, RNA, and protein folding.
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Proteins are like bicycle chains
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with sequences of amino acid links.
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They self assemble into 3-D structures
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because of the interaction
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between the amino acids along the chain,
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as well as the relationship
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between the chain and the environment.
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These forces make the flexible chain
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fold into a 3-D shape
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that governs the function in the protein.
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Viruses, on the other hand, are like soccer balls.
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They're made up of a series of sub-units with specific shapes.
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Those shapes have attraction to one another,
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