Life's Ratchet
How Molecular Machines Extract Order from Chaos
by Peter M. Hoffmann · first published 2012
67% recommend33% neutral
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 t
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…Beginning of Infinity by David Deutch Antifragile by Taleb Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by Yudkowski. Particularly Chapter 39. The two Political Order and Political Decay books by Fukuyama Life's Ratchet - Hoffman
on “Ask HN: What books fundamentally changed the way you think about the world?” ↗Life's Ratchet: How Molecular Machines Extract Order from Chaos by Peter M. Hoffmann Just an amazing book giving what seems like the secret details how of the world works at a physical level. "Thus, the nanoscale…
on “Ask HN: What book changed your life in 2013?” ↗I'm reading "Life's Ratchet: How Molecular Machines Extract Order from Chaos" by Peter M. Hoffmann, and it pretty thoroughly disavowed me of the notion that we're anywhere near understanding how the brain works, which doesn't bode…
on “Microsoft Challenges Google’s Artificial Brain With ‘Project Adam’” ↗