Appendix: Glossary
Vincenzo Balzani, Alberto Credi, Prof. Margeritha Venturi · 2003
The definitions given are not general, but related to the content of this book absorption spectrum: a diagram of the wavelength distribution of the absorption of light by a substance actin: a thread-like protein involved in the linear movement of myosin adduct: a supramolecular species resulting from the association, driven by intermolecular forces, of two simpler components allosteric effect: modification of the binding ability (or another property) of one site in a molecule or supramolecular species derived from a conformational rearrangement induced by binding at another remote site; allosteric effects can be positive or negative amphiphile: a molecule that has two distinct zones, one water-soluble (hydrophilic)and the other soluble in organic media (hydrophobic or lipophilic) antenna (molecular-level): see light-harvesting antenna aspartate carbamoyltransferase: an enzyme involved in the synthesis of thymine and cytosine in bacteria assembler: a general purpose building nanorobot atomic force microscopy (AFM): see scanning probe microscopy ATP synthase: the enzyme that synthesizes ATP (see also F 0 F 1 -ATP synthase) attenuation parameter (b): a parameter related to the decrease of the rate of an electron-(b el ), hole-(b ht ), or energy-(b en ) transfer process with increasing distance azacrown ether: a crown ether in which one or more oxygen atoms are replaced by nitrogen azobenzene: a molecular unit containing an NbN double bond that can exist as two different geometrical isomers called cis and trans; see also cis-trans isomers back electron-transfer: a term often used to indicate thermal reversal of a photoinduced electron-transfer reaction which restores the donor and the acceptor in their original oxidation levels; see also charge recombination battery (molecular-level): a molecule capable of accumulating charge beacon (molecular-level): a hairpin-shaped oligonucleotide bearing an intramolecularly quenched fluorophore whose fluorescence is restored upon binding Molecular Devices and Machines -A Journey into the Nano World.