Life's Ratchet: How Molecular Machines Extract Order from Chaos

Peter M. Hoffmann

Basic Books, Oct 30, 2012 - Science - 278 pages

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.

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LIFE'S RATCHET: How Molecular Machines Extract Order from Chaos

User Review  - Kirkus

A biophysicist examines the relationship between chance and necessity at the boundary between life and inanimate objects.Hoffmann (Physics and Materials Science/Wayne State Univ.) founded his ...

Contents

• Introduction: 1
• Chance and Necessity: 45
• The Entropy of a LateNight Robber: 67
• On a Very Small Scale: 89
• Maxwells Demon and Feynmans Ratchet: 125
• The Mystery of Life: 143
• Twist and Route: 169
• The Watch and the Ribosome: 213
• Making a Living: 229
• Epilogue: 243
• Suggested Reading: 259

About the author

Peter M. Hoffmann is a professor of physics and materials science at Wayne State University in Michigan and the founder and director of the university's Biomedical Physics program. He lives in Saint Clair Shores, Michigan.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Life's Ratchet: How Molecular Machines Extract Order from Chaos
• Author: Peter M. Hoffmann
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Basic Books, 2012
• ISBN: 0465022537, 9780465022533
• Length: 278 pages
• Subjects: Science / Biotechnology; Science / Chaotic Behavior in Systems; Science / Chemistry / Computational & Molecular Modeling; Science / Chemistry / Organic; Science / Chemistry / Physical & Theoretical; Science / History; Science / Life Sciences / Biochemistry; Science / Life Sciences / Biology; Science / Life Sciences / Biophysics; Science / Life Sciences / Cell Biology; Science / Life Sciences / Evolution; Science / Life Sciences / Microbiology; Science / Life Sciences / Molecular Biology; Science / Mechanics / Thermodynamics; Science / Philosophy & Social Aspects; Science / Physics / Atomic & Molecular