Molecular Machine, Unadorned

So, chemists, you've probably seen this article over at Nature News, which reports a "molecular robot" capable of traveling down a track to assemble a small peptide. Pretty awesome, right?

Source: Nature News | Leigh Group, University of Manchester

Now, that's a cute cartoon, but what's behind the scenes? Intrigued, I hustled over to Prof. Leigh's Supporting Information, and found the real gizmo, spectra and all. Take a look!

Source: Science | Prof. David Leigh

(Yes, that's a carbon NMR, for a single compound.)

I will never complain about characterizing small-molecule drugs again!