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

Life's Ratchet- How Molecular Machines Extract Order from Chaos covers a host of topics. The author, a physicist by training, investigates what drives life and order at the cellular level. At its core, the book describes the mechanics of molecular machines which are defined as - molecules that can transfer energy from one form to another. But the book gives a history of biology a background in physics to help frame the investigation and finally a discussion of the machines that are the subject of investigation and their physical attributes. The non-expert can get a lot from this book.Life's ra

Having taught cell and molecular biology at the college-freshman level for several years, I thought I had a pretty fair mental image of the conditions and metabolic activities that exist within various living cells. Truth is however, I had never imagined the magnitude of the random thermal motion (or 'molecular storm' as Hoffmann calls it) that is a constant feature of the cell interior, and that Hoffmann describes--and quantifies--in an entirely captivating manner. Even less did I ever entertain the possibility that such random thermal motion is exploited by enzymes and molecular motors withi

I liked this book a lot. Even though it has faults as other reviewers have pointed out, it contains a lesson that I had not found elsewhere, namely that a great deal of how life works is through the action of molecular machines.What is a molecular machine? Hoffmann defines it as a molecule that transforms energy from one form into another. Since this is his book, it's probably a correct definition. But the intuition I got is that a molecular machine is a molecule that performs a physical operation. Hoffmann describes the workings of a number of these molecular machines. Two of the most importa

This is an absolutely amazing book.For millennia, there has been a sense that living matter is somehow different from ordinary matter. There had to be some kind of vital force, something outside the well understood laws of physics and chemistry. For centuries, the challenge stood, even as scientists discovered cells, organic synthesis, genes and protein structure.Then science reached the nanoscale. In the late 1980s and early 1990s a new class of microscope opened up the world of the nanometer. Individual molecules could be viewed, first statically, then in motion. New techniques could mark in

Aside from the amount of space the author devotes to science history, and how we got to where we are now (which in my opinion mostly helps to understand the huge amount of effort and difficulty that preceded major scientific advancements), the main point of the book is in the word 'ratchet', and specifically, in the 'reset mechanism', which is how molecular motors can extract energy out of chaos, and which explains away how the infamous Maxwell's demon, and biological systems, do not violate the 2nd law (Entropy).There is an eerie feeling with a graph that he shows from Physics Today showing t

Wants to know how life began and where organic chemistry becomes purposeful life. This is the book. When I was done, I put it down and said to myself "Well there you have it, now I know how it got this way" . I have spent the last 20 years reading every science book I could find to try to really understand what it is that I'm looking at every day, how the hell did this happen? Well now I know. I may never have to pick up another book again in my life. The author writes in such a pleasant way as to avoid any kind of condescending undercurrent, he knows some stuff would be impossible for guys li

Started with a good summary of historical thought on life, atomism, the vital force and how that succumbed to scientific research and building a theory of biology based on elucidated facts. Continued with a really good explanation of details of biological nano machines using relatable physical intuition rather than jargon and mathematics. No mean feat, considering the basis of the field is just those offputting terminologies! But wrapped things up with a rushed return to philosophy, considering the implications of this new knowlege. This last was not well explored, though i think the author co

A truly wonderful read! Of the fundamental questions asked by humans (what is life?) is certainly one of most intriguing and perplexing of questions. This book does a remarkable job at answering one of humanities ultimate questions. The author takes the reader along a journey from early philosophers and their take on the question as to what is life, all the way to the scientists of modernity. This is the first book that I have read that not only explains life as a process, but also guides the reader through the inner workings of life’s processes, showing how Nano machines, are both constructed