Brownian motion, molecular motors and ratchets

In the last decade there has been an increasing interest in generating useful work on the nano-scale to promote transport of particles. The essential theoretical formalism, rooted in nonequilibrium statistical physics, has been. successfully applied to the description of physical principles underlying biological motors. In most cases, the principle behind the rectifying motion is the famous Feynman's ratchet and pawl model. We give an overview of the core statistical physics fundamentals in this rapidly developing field. (C) 2004 Published by Elsevier B.V.