Professor Bernard L. Feringa is one of the pioneers of modern nanochemistry. In 2016, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the design and synthesis of molecular machines – molecules capable of performing controlled, directional motion when powered by light or chemical energy. His work helped turn a long-standing scientific idea into a real, experimentally proven concept and opened an entirely new field at the intersection of chemistry, physics, and biology.
In this interview, Professor Feringa reflects on the intellectual and emotional moments behind his discoveries, including the instant when a single molecule was first shown to rotate continuously like a microscopic motor. He explains how molecular machines relate to the nanoscopic systems operating inside the human body and why motion is a defining feature of life itself.
The conversation also explores future applications – from targeted medical therapies and smart materials to artificial muscles and soft robotics – as well as the scientific challenges that still lie ahead.
At a more personal level, Professor Feringa shares how he explains his Nobel Prize to his grandchildren, translating abstract nanoscience into ideas that non-expert can understand. The result is a conversation that combines fundamental research, curiosity-driven discovery, and a human perspective on how science advances – step by step, molecule by molecule.
UW Science Daily: How does it feel, intellectually and emotionally, when you have been involved in a project for many years and suddenly you experience that “eureka, I’ve got it” moment?
Prof. Bernard L. Feringa: We have been working for many years on molecular switches and motors – tiny molecular systems that can move under the influence of light.
The big idea was whether we could create motion at the nanoscale, at dimensions of about one billionth of a meter – comparable to the tiny machines operating in your body. And finally, after several years, we discovered a system that was actually moving – rotating like a rotary motor.
When we realized this, it was a real eureka moment. A molecule that can rotate like a propeller or a real motor, extremely small – millions of times smaller than what you can see – and powered purely by light. That was certainly one of the major eureka moments of my career. A second eureka moment came six years later.
We embedded these motors into a material and attached a microscopic glass rod – I will show the movie later – and it started spinning.
I could literally see an object rotating without touching it, driven only by light. I will never forget that moment. It was a Tuesday afternoon, around a quarter past five, when my students asked me to come to the lab. They had prepared the setup, switched on the lamp, and the system began to rotate.
And I saw it. Can you imagine that? It was a magical moment. I could not speak for five minutes.
That is emotion. Science is about rational thinking, about ideas and discoveries – but it is also about emotion.
UW Science Daily: So it was not just a kind of cognitive relief?
Prof. Bernard L. Feringa: It was euphoric. A feeling of “wow, we made a discovery – and it works.”
UW Science Daily: When your grandchildren ask you what you received the Nobel Prize for, how do you explain it to them?
Prof. Bernard L. Feringa: That is a very good question. I tell them that everything we do – speaking, seeing, waving a hand, lifting something, walking – is made possible by tiny motors and machines in our bodies. There are billions and billions of these nanomachines.
When you ask a small child whether something is alive or not, they often answer based on movement. If something moves – a tiny spider, for example – it is alive. These molecular machines make that difference. They create motion, which is one of the defining characteristics of life.
It is not just one motor – there are millions working together, and together they become very strong. Sometimes I do a little experiment with children and explain that if many motors work together and you apply force, everything becomes smoother and stronger.
And then they ask, how small are they? I tell them – imagine what you see, and then go a billion times smaller. That is the scale of these machines.
UW Science Daily: How did the idea of molecular motors emerge? Was it a sudden inspiration, perhaps in the shower?
Prof. Bernard L. Feringa: No, not at all. It started with molecular switches.
Think about the switches in your laptop, smartphone, or car – on, off, zero, one. We wanted to do molecular switching for information storage, using light rather than electricity.
I asked myself – where do we already have a light switch in nature? In the eye. Vision is based on millions of molecular switches that respond to light and send information to the brain. So we asked whether we could use optical switching, similar to the eye, for information storage.
A switch has to go back and forth. If it worked only once, you would see something only once and then it would stop. But after several years, we noticed that one particular switch did not go backward – it kept moving forward.
That was the moment when we realized that if it moves in a circle, we can build a molecular motor. So we did not start with the idea of making a motor – we started with switching, and from switching we arrived at motion.
UW Science Daily: What is currently the main scientific bottleneck in this field?
Prof. Bernard L. Feringa: One major challenge is synchronization. Many groups around the world are working on different motor designs, but making many motors work together is difficult.
In your muscles, many molecular motors operate in concert. They synchronize, and that is what makes you strong. Achieving that level of coordination in artificial systems remains a major challenge.
Another challenge is developing motors driven not only by light but also electrically or chemically. We have been working for several years on nanoscale electromotors – motors about one billionth of a meter in size.
We also work on chemically driven motors. For example, a propulsion system that moves using sugar.
UW Science Daily: With sugar?
Prof. Bernard L. Feringa: Yes, with sugar. Around the world, researchers are exploring chemical propulsion systems. In your body, protein motors are driven by chemical fuels. We are trying to mimic that.
UW Science Daily: What real-world applications of molecular machines do you see as most promising in the next 10 to 20 years?
Prof. Bernard L. Feringa: One major focus is medicine. We have a large program together with medical schools, working on smart pharmaceuticals.
Consider chemotherapy. It is effective, but it causes severe side effects – hair loss and many others – because it affects the entire body. If you could activate a drug precisely at the tumor site, for example with light or a laser, you could perform precision therapy.
We are working on switching medicines on and off exactly when and where they are needed. These tiny machines enable that. We have moved beyond experiments in cells and are now beginning experiments in tissues.
Another important area is self-cleaning and self-repairing materials. Recently I cut my finger. If you keep it clean, it heals itself. Nature repairs itself.
But if you scratch your car or your laptop, you need external repair. If we could design materials that repair themselves, inspired by nature and enabled by molecular machines, that would be transformative.
You would not need to clean windows anymore. You would not need to repair scratches. That is the dream.
We are also working on soft robotics, artificial muscles, and systems that can bend and move.
UW Science Daily: You mentioned other teams working on similar problems. For example, your former PhD student Dr. Danowski, now at the University of Warsaw. What interests you most about the work being done here?
Prof. Bernard L. Feringa: Dr. Danowski was trained in this field both in my group and in Strasbourg. He understands how to design molecules, build responsive materials, and combine switches, motors, and machines.
Together with materials scientists and physicists here, this allows truly interdisciplinary work. We recently published a joint paper with Wojciech in the United States on porous materials.
These materials have pores whose size and accessibility can be switched. This opens applications such as CO₂ capture, air and water purification, membranes, and controlled drug delivery – capturing a drug and then releasing it slowly using light-driven motion.
Wojciech’s strength is precisely in bridging organic chemistry, materials science, and physics.
UW Science Daily: I read the abstract of your latest article on photoisomerization. Can such machines be used to damage or destroy cellular membranes, for example in viruses or cancer cells?
Prof. Bernard L. Feringa: We placed a molecular machine inside a protein that forms a pore in a membrane. When activated, it drills a hole in a cancer cell membrane and kills the cell.
We have also worked with colleagues at the Max Planck Institute in Munich, incorporating motors into cell membranes. When they rotate, the membrane becomes more porous or even changes its structure.
We are exploring how this can be used to divide cells or modify cellular behavior. These are the kinds of questions we are addressing.
UW Science Daily: So you can cure every disease?
Prof. Bernard L. Feringa: No, certainly not. But these are entirely new approaches – beyond traditional drug delivery.
They offer possibilities for precise treatment, for destroying specific cells such as tumor cells or bacteria, and for healing or self-repair.
UW Science Daily: Can molecular machines destroy prions (misfolded proteins responsible for diseases such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, commonly known as mad cow disease)?
Prof. Bernard L. Feringa: We have not worked on prions. We work with proteins and DNA – incorporating switches into them and changing their structure – but prions specifically are not part of our research.
UW Science Daily: Does chemistry have a single fundamental unresolved problem that could be considered a frontier of knowledge?
Prof. Bernard L. Feringa: One of the biggest challenges in chemistry is designing materials that are both robust and recyclable. Plastics are everywhere – in coatings, paints, cars, airplanes. A car is about 50 percent plastic, an airplane as well.
We need materials that are stable during use but recyclable on demand. Nature can do this – our bodies constantly rebuild and recycle materials. Learning how to do this synthetically is a major challenge.
A deeper fundamental question is the origin of life. How did molecules come together billions of years ago to form systems capable of metabolism, replication, and motion?
Before Darwinian evolution, there must have been chemical evolution – chem-biogenesis. From a few molecules, complex systems emerged. A single cell is extraordinarily complex – more complex than an entire city like Warsaw.
Motion is crucial. Even bacteria need to move to survive. Understanding how such systems emerged is, to me, the most fundamental scientific question.
UW Science Daily: What would be your message to our readers?
Prof. Bernard L. Feringa: Believe in the power of knowledge and science.
Fundamental research lays the foundation for future technologies. Invest in young people. Ask questions. Be creative. Do not take the world for granted.
Seventy years ago, nobody imagined smartphones. The world can change completely. Think critically and follow your curiosity.
