A01=Peter Hoffmann
A01=Peter M. Hoffmann
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
Author_Peter Hoffmann
Author_Peter M. Hoffmann
automatic-update
biological computer
biological machinery
Category=PDZ
Category=PHM
Category=PSD
chemistry
complexity
computational machines
COP=United States
Delivery_Pre-order
emergence
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_science
evolution
Format=BB
Format_Hardback
Language_Others
life
molecular machines
origins of life
PA=Temporarily unavailable
Price_€20 to €50
PS=Active
science
second law of thermodynamics
softlaunch
thermodynamics
vitalism
Product details
- ISBN 9780465022533
- Format: Hardback
- Weight: 482g
- Dimensions: 166 x 238mm
- Publication Date: 30 Oct 2012
- Publisher: Basic Books
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
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.
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.
