Many molecular phenomena are insensitive to energy differences on the order of kT

In engineering nanosystems, one way to compensate for the limited accuracy of energy calculations is to restrict designs to systems and processes that are insensitive to the expected errors. This encourges a focus (for example) on reactions favored by large energy differentials and on structures that are mechanically stiff. Sensitivity to inaccuracies can also be reduced by choosing designs in which essential properties (e.g., the energy barriers encountered by sliding interfaces) depend more on symmetry properties than on the magnitudes of the component interaction energies.