Sign-In
Cart
Life's Ratchet: How Molecular Machines Extract Order from Chaos
Hardcover
ISBN13: 9780465022533
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: Oct 1 2012
Pages: 288
Weight: 1.10
Height: 1.10 Width: 6.40 Depth: 9.30
Language: English
Life is an enduring mystery. Yet, science tells us that living beings are merely sophisticated structures of lifeless molecules. If this view is correct, where do the seemingly purposeful motions of cells and organisms originate? In Life's Ratchet, physicist Peter M. Hoffmann locates the answer to this age-old question at the nanoscale.
Below the calm, ordered exterior of a living organism lies microscopic chaos, or what Hoffmann calls the molecular storm--specialized molecules immersed in a whirlwind of colliding water molecules. Our cells are filled with molecular machines, which, like tiny ratchets, transform random motion into ordered activity, and create the purpose that is the hallmark of life. Tiny electrical motors turn electrical voltage into motion, nanoscale factories custom-build other molecular machines, and mechanical machines twist, untwist, separate and package strands of DNA. The cell is like a city--an unfathomable, complex collection of molecular workers working together to create something greater than themselves.
Life, Hoffman argues, emerges from the random motions of atoms filtered through these sophisticated structures of our evolved machinery. We are agglomerations of interacting nanoscale machines more amazing than anything in science fiction. Rather than relying on some mysterious life force to drive them--as people believed for centuries--life's ratchets harness instead the second law of thermodynamics and the disorder of the molecular storm.
Grounded in Hoffmann's own cutting-edge research, Life's Ratchet reveals the incredible findings of modern nanotechnology to tell the story of how the noisy world of atoms gives rise to life itself.
Also in
Biology
The Age of Living Machines: How Biology Will Build the Next Technology Revolution
Hockfield, Susan
Paperback
Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures
Sheldrake, Merlin
Paperback
Hidden Creatures: Luscious Leeches, Bashful Botflies, and the Wondrous, History-Shaping World of Parasites
Martins, Dino
Hardcover
Beyond Inheritance: Our Ever-Mutating Cells and a New Understanding of Health
Khamsi, Roxanne
Hardcover
The World Beneath Our Feet: The Hidden Life of Soil and Why It Matters to Us All
Ashwood, Frank
Hardcover
History by a Hair: Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemings & Solving a 200-Year-Old Mystery
Kurin, Richard
Hardcover
The Biology of Trauma: How the Body Holds Fear, Pain, and Overwhelm, and How to Heal It
Apigian, Aimie
Hardcover
Togetherness: Symbiosis and the Hidden Story of Life's Greatest Collaborations
Hooper, Rowan
Hardcover
Go Forth and Forage: A Guide to Foraging Over 50 of the Most Common Edible & Medicinal North American Mushrooms
Johnson, Whitney
Paperback
The Power of Life: The Invention of Biology and the Revolutionary Science of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
Riskin, Jessica
Hardcover
Ernst Haeckel's Art Forms in Nature: A Visual Masterpiece of the Natural World
Haeckel, Ernst
Hardcover
Forbidden Facts: Government Deceit & Suppression about Brain Damage from Childhood Vaccines
de Becker, Gavin
Hardcover
Fungi Decoded: Adventures in the Mycosphere--Encounters with Thirty Fungi
Bunyard, Britt A.
Paperback
The Whole Truth: The Hidden Agendas Behind Decades of Health Misinformation--And What to Do about It
Campbell, T. Colin
Campbell, Nelson
Hardcover
Princeton Review AP Biology Premium Prep, 29th Edition: 6 Practice Tests + Digital Practice Online + Content Review
The Princeton Review
Paperback
Night Magic: Adventures Among Glowworms, Moon Gardens, and Other Marvels of the Dark
Henion, Leigh Ann
Hardcover
Food Intelligence: The Science of How Food Both Nourishes and Harms Us
Belluz, Julia
Hall, Kevin, PhD
Hardcover
Cells at Work! Picture Book 1: The Great Bacteria vs. White Blood Cell Battle!
Makimura, Kumi
Hardcover
Peterson Field Guide to Mushrooms of North America, Second Edition
McKnight Ward, Kirsten
McKnight, Karl B.
Rohrer, Joseph R.
Paperback
Bioinspired: How Nature Made Us Modern, Drives Today's Technological Innovation, and Inspires a Future Worth Inventing
Stier, Samuel Cord
Hardcover
The Big One: How We Must Prepare for Future Deadly Pandemics
Olshaker, Mark
Osterholm, Michael T.
Hardcover
A Year with the Seals: Unlocking the Secrets of the Sea's Most Charismatic and Controversial Creatures
Morris, Alix
Hardcover
All That Remains: A Renowned Forensic Scientist on Death, Mortality, and Solving Crimes
Black, Sue
Paperback
VAX Facts: What to Consider Before Vaccinating at All Ages & Stages of Life
Thomas, Paul
Hoover, Deedee
Paperback
Psilocybin: Magic Mushroom Grower's Guide: A Handbook for Psilocybin Enthusiasts
Oss, O. T.
Oeric, O. N.
Paperback
The Gut-Brain Paradox: Improve Your Mood, Clear Brain Fog, and Reverse Disease by Healing Your Microbiome
Gundry MD, Steven R.
Hardcover
The Aesthetic Revolution: Embracing Vanity and the Future of Fitness to Unlock Your Healthiest Self
Israetel, Mike
Hardcover
True Hallucinations: Being an Account of the Author's Extraordinary Adventures in the Devil's Paradis
McKenna, Terence
Paperback
National Geographic the Photo Ark: One Man's Quest to Document the World's Animals
Sartore, Joel
Chadwick, Douglas H.
Hardcover
Psilocybin Mushrooms: A Comprehensive Guide to Growing and Using Psychedelic Mushrooms
Madden, Michael
Paperback
Fungi of Temperate Europe: Keys to the Basidiomycotes
Læssøe, Thomas
Petersen, Jens H.
Frøslev, Tobias G.
Hardcover
Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast: A Comprehensive Guide to the Fungi of Coastal Northern California
Siegel, Noah
Schwarz, Christian
Paperback
Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures
Sheldrake, Merlin
Hardcover
The Little Book of Mushrooms: An Illustrated Guide to the Extraordinary Power of Mushrooms
Dorr, Alex
Hardcover
The Life Machines: How Taking Care of Your Mitochondria Can Transform Your Health
Mochly-Rosen, Daria
Rosen, Emanuel
Hardcover
Mushrooming: An Illustrated Guide to the Fantastic, Delicious, Deadly, and Strange World of Fungi
Borsato, Diane
Hardcover
The Contagion Myth: Why Viruses (Including Coronavirus) Are Not the Cause of Disease
Cowan, Thomas S.
Fallon Morell, Sally
Hardcover
From These Lands: Sharing Our Natural and Cultural Heritage
National Museum of Natural History
Hardcover
How to Win Friends and Influence Fungi: Collected Quirks of Science, Tech, Engineering, and Math from Nerd Nite
Balakrishnan, Chris
Wasowski, Matt
Paperback
Human Errors: A Panorama of Our Glitches, from Pointless Bones to Broken Genes
Lents, Nathan H.
Paperback
Pull: How Gravity Shapes Your Body, Steadies the Mind, and Guides Our Health
Spiegel, Brennan
Hardcover
The Ocean's Menagerie: How Earth's Strangest Creatures Reshape the Rules of Life
Harvell, Drew
Hardcover
Mushrooms of Cascadia, Second Edition: An Illustrated Key to the Fungi of the Pacific Northwest
Beug, Michael
Paperback
The Mycocultural Revolution: Transforming Our World with Mushrooms, Lichens, and Other Fungi
McCoy, Peter
Hardcover
The Art and Science of Foodpairing: 10,000 Flavour Matches That Will Transform the Way You Eat
Coucquyt, Peter
Lahousse, Bernard
Langenbick, Johan
Hardcover
The Pale Blue Data Point: An Earth-Based Perspective on the Search for Alien Life
Willis, Jon
Hardcover
Field Notes from a Fungi Forager: An Illustrated Journey Through the World of Pacific Northwest Mushrooms
Rodriguez, Ashley
Hardcover
Gut Check: Unleash the Power of Your Microbiome to Reverse Disease and Transform Your Mental, Physical, and Emotional Health
Gundry MD, Steven R.
Hardcover
National Audubon Society Wildflowers of North America: The Complete Identification Reference to Wildflowers--With Full-Color Photographs; Updated Rang
National Audubon Society
Hardcover
Life in Sync: The Science of Internal Clocks and How We're Disrupting Them
Gander, Philippa
Hardcover
The Serengeti Rules: The Quest to Discover How Life Works and Why It Matters
Carroll, Sean B.
Paperback
The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health
Montgomery, David R.
Biklé, Anne
Paperback
Field Guide to Wild Mushrooms of Pennsylvania and the Mid-Atlantic: Revised and Expanded Edition
Russell, Bill
Paperback
The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA
Watson, James D.
Paperback
Sea Wonders: The Octopus, the Cuttlefish, and the Squid
Colombo, Marco
Tomasinelli, Francesco
Hardcover
Superconvergence: How the Genetics, Biotech, and AI Revolutions Will Transform Our Lives, Work, and World
Metzl, Jamie
Paperback