To the left is a model of glucose, the molecule made from water and carbon dioxide through photosynthesis (6H20 + 6CO2 > C6H12O6 + 6O2). It is the building block of any kind of life. It took nature a billion years to perfect its assemblage, by trial and error.
To the right is a molecule called O@C12; it is made of an atom of oxygen within a cage of 12 carbon atoms (in the form of a dodecahedron). Such completely artificial molecules are made my nano-technology, a discipline only about 40 years old (*). The properties of any such molecule can now be predicted by artificial intelligence, and molecules with the most phenomenal properties will be assembled.
(*) We write in 2022. Richard Feynman mused about constructing artificial molecules and molecular devices already in a 1959 presentation: “There is plenty of room at the bottom”.
