This paper summarizes a few of the self-assembling systems investigated in the authors' laboratory over the years. These include systems that mimic an enzyme, solubilize drugs, release encapsulated guests, assemble via hydrophobic surfaces, exhibit hysteresis in films, link cancer cells to vesicles, and destroy toxic compounds. Although the amphiphilic molecules are all rather different, one overriding theme predominates: just as the properties of molecules are not simple extrapolations from atoms, properties of self-assemblies are not simple extrapolations from molecules. Groups of molecules, properly assembled, can accomplish much more than an equal number of molecules functioning separately. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.