Life’s Ratchet
How Molecular Machines Extract Order from Chaos
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Narrated by:
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Paul Hodgson
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By:
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Peter M. Hoffman
About this listen
The cells in our bodies consist of molecules, made up of the same carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen atoms found in air and rocks. But molecules, such as water and sugar, are not alive. So how do our cells - assemblies of otherwise "dead" molecules - come to life, and together constitute a living being?
In Life’s Ratchet, physicist Peter M. Hoffmann locates the answer to this age-old question at the nanoscale. The complex molecules of our cells can rightfully be called "molecular machines", or "nanobots"; these machines, unlike any other, work autonomously to create order out of chaos. Tiny electrical motors turn electrical voltage into motion, tiny 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 worker bees working together to create something greater than themselves.
Life, Hoffman argues, emerges from the random motions of atoms filtered through the sophisticated structures of our evolved machinery. We are essentially giant assemblies of interacting nanoscale machines; machines more amazing than can be found in any science fiction novel. Incredibly, the molecular machines in our cells function without a mysterious "life force", nor do they violate any natural laws. Scientists can now prove that life is not supernatural, and that it can be fully understood in the context of science.
Part history, part cutting-edge science, part philosophy, Life’s Ratchet takes us from ancient Greece to the laboratories of modern nanotechnology to tell the story of our quest for the machinery of life.
©2012 Peter M. Hoffman (P)2014 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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In Beyond Biocentrism, acclaimed biologist Robert Lanza and astronomer Bob Berman take the listener on an intellectual thrill ride as they reexamine everything we thought we knew about life, death, the universe, and the nature of reality itself. The first step is acknowledging that our existing model of reality is looking increasingly creaky in the face of recent scientific discoveries.
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Here's the thing
- By Mikal on 11-09-18
By: Robert Lanza, and others
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What Is Life?
- How Chemistry Becomes Biology
- By: Addy Pross
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Seventy years ago, Erwin Schrdinger posed a simple, yet profound, question: What is life?. How could the very existence of such extraordinary chemical systems be understood? This problem has puzzled biologists and physical scientists both before, and ever since. Living things are hugely complex and have unique properties, such as self-maintenance and apparently purposeful behaviour which we do not see in inert matter. So how does chemistry give rise to biology?
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Profound & Life Changing...
- By Daegan Smith on 04-06-15
By: Addy Pross
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The Island of Knowledge
- The Limits of Science and the Search for Meaning
- By: Marcelo Gleiser
- Narrated by: William Neenan
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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How much can we know about the world? In this audiobook physicist Marcelo Gleiser traces our search for answers to the most fundamental questions of existence, the origin of the universe, the nature of reality, and the limits of knowledge. In so doing he reaches a provocative conclusion: Science, like religion, is fundamentally limited as a tool for understanding the world. As science and its philosophical interpretations advance, we face the unsettling recognition of how much we don't know.
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Island of knowledge
- By Joshua Kring on 07-26-15
By: Marcelo Gleiser
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Science and the Akashic Field
- An Integral Theory of Everything
- By: Ervin Laszlo
- Narrated by: Tom Pile
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Mystics and sages have long maintained that there exists an interconnecting cosmic field at the roots of reality that conserves and conveys information, a field known as the Akashic record. Recent discoveries in vacuum physics show that this Akashic field is real and has its equivalent in science's zero-point field that underlies space itself. This field consists of a subtle sea of fluctuating energies from which all things arise: atoms and galaxies, stars and planets, living beings, and even consciousness.
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A must-read about ultimate nature of reality
- By Alexandra Hopkins on 04-15-18
By: Ervin Laszlo
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The Story of Western Science
- From the Writings of Aristotle to the Big Bang Theory
- By: Susan Wise Bauer
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Far too often, public discussion of science is carried out by journalists, voters, and politicians who have received their science secondhand. The Story of Western Science shows us the joy and importance of reading groundbreaking science writing for ourselves and guides us back to the masterpieces that have changed the way we think about our world, our cosmos, and ourselves.
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Good text, tedious book structure
- By Diane K. on 10-07-15
By: Susan Wise Bauer
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Infinite Powers
- How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe
- By: Steven Strogatz
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Infinite Powers recounts how calculus tantalized and thrilled its inventors, starting with its first glimmers in ancient Greece and bringing us right up to the discovery of gravitational waves. Strogatz reveals how this form of math rose to the challenges of each age: how to determine the area of a circle with only sand and a stick; how to explain why Mars goes "backwards" sometimes; how to turn the tide in the fight against AIDS.
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Not written to be read aloud
- By A Reader in Maine on 02-21-20
By: Steven Strogatz
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Life's Engines
- How Microbes Made Earth Habitable
- By: Paul G. Falkowski
- Narrated by: Nick Sullivan
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Paul Falkowski looks "under the hood" of microbes to find the engines of life, the actual working parts that do the biochemical heavy lifting for every living organism on Earth. With insight and humor, he explains how these miniature engines are built - and how they have been appropriated by and assembled like Lego sets within every creature that walks, swims, or flies. Falkowski shows how evolution works to maintain this core machinery of life, and how we and other animals are veritable conglomerations of microbes.
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Best Science Book Ever Written. Period.
- By serine on 07-28-15
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The Blind Watchmaker
- Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 14 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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The Blind Watchmaker, knowledgably narrated by author Richard Dawkins, is as prescient and timely a book as ever. The watchmaker belongs to the 18th-century theologian William Paley, who argued that just as a watch is too complicated and functional to have sprung into existence by accident, so too must all living things, with their far greater complexity, be purposefully designed. Charles Darwin's brilliant discovery challenged the creationist arguments; but only Richard Dawkins could have written this elegant riposte.
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Challenging textbook more than an enjoyable listen
- By Eric on 01-15-12
By: Richard Dawkins
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The World According to Physics
- By: Jim Al-Khalili
- Narrated by: Jim Al-Khalili
- Length: 6 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Shining a light on the most profound insights revealed by modern physics, Jim Al-Khalili invites us all to understand what this crucially important science tells us about the universe and the nature of reality itself. Al-Khalili begins by introducing the fundamental concepts of space, time, energy, and matter, and then describes the three pillars of modern physics - quantum theory, relativity, and thermodynamics - showing how all three must come together if we are ever to have a full understanding of reality.
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excellent book
- By Anonymous User on 05-10-21
By: Jim Al-Khalili
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Calculating the Cosmos
- How Mathematics Unveils the Universe
- By: Ian Stewart
- Narrated by: Dana Hickox
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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In Calculating the Cosmos, Ian Stewart presents an exhilarating guide to the cosmos, from our solar system to the entire universe. He describes the architecture of space and time, dark matter and dark energy, how galaxies form, why stars implode, how everything began, and how it's all going to end. He considers parallel universes, the fine-tuning of the cosmos for life, what forms extraterrestrial life might take, and the likelihood of life on Earth being snuffed out by an asteroid.
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Crank alert: rejects modern cosmology
- By James Weisner on 03-20-17
By: Ian Stewart
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What listeners say about Life’s Ratchet
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Sean Frank
- 05-24-17
This book blew my mind, aka my brain!
I am going to listen to this one again there was a lot to unpack. Great book!
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- Mutant Daddy
- 11-06-19
From molecular storm to chance and necessity
Fascinating explanation of some of life’s mysteries— for lay readers like me — at the nanometer scale. This gets interwoven with a recap of important discoveries as scientists have groped and grappled along the way to discovery.
Minor quibbles:
1) The author evidently felt compelled to repeat
himself at times to ensure readers stayed with him;
2) For this reader it would have been helpful to hear more about how energy gets transformed to do so many important things at the molecular level. Does ATP, for example, serve as the cell’s energy currency always and everywhere by releasing vibrational energy? Perhaps the author has more to share with us in the future...
All in all, quibbles aside, a rich way to spend eight hours listening!
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- Klaas Deforche
- 09-15-16
Very good book
Very interesting to read. Highly recommended! I learned a lot, the book goes into detail but is easy to follow.
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- Phil Virgo
- 01-25-15
a great book
The first chapters are a review of western thinking about science and life from ancient Greece forward, which did not excite me. Eventually the book delves into current understanding of the components of life at the level of molecular machines and how they survive and make use of the incredibly powerful frenzied chaos of Brownian motion. A well written explanation of the amazing complexity of a living cell. The conclusion turns back to philosophical ideas about the life,universe,and everything, which I enjoyed as it was based on a much deeper understanding of what is happening than the ancients, or anyone until very recently could have any clue.
The reader's pronouncements are distracting, not sure if he speaks a dialect correctly or was unfamiliar with the vocabulary, but once you get used to that, the reading is very good.
a very great book!
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4 people found this helpful
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- Ben Chen
- 03-15-17
What makes something "alive"?
Great story overall. Is obviously a subject the author has thought about a lot, cares about, and on which is a technical expert. Can get a little too technical sometimes, but otherwise a good mix of philosophy, science, and storytelling.
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- M. Briscoe
- 12-30-23
Comprehensive approach to a complex subject.
Some repetition but it was needed and useful for those of us who had a long absence from the classroom! Overall an enjoyable and stimulating listen.
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- A Synthetic Biologist
- 09-04-14
For biologists to learn single molecule biophysics
I loved this book. I wish I could give it more than 5 stars. I was trained as a molecular biologist, and I am very well versed in the theory of how the processes of life work. DNA to RNA to protein, all about cell biology, which proteins are important for what, etc. However, molecular biophysics, quantitative and single molecule approaches have always interested me, but been to far out of my comfort zone for me to engage to closely with. This book did an excellent job at helping me bridge that gap in my knowledge, and I now feel comfortable understanding how a protein can use the energy of an ATP molecule to perform an energetically unfavorable reaction, for instance. The history of the scientific understanding of vital forces and what animates life was also illuminating.
However, I suspect that this book might not appeal to very many people. The history section, the nanoscale physics section, and the section on how specific motor proteins work were all interesting to me, but I can't imagine very many people have both a sufficient biological background to understand the later chapters in the book, and an insufficient knowledge of physics to appreciate the earlier chapters, lucky for me, I fit the bill. I also have an strong interest in the history of science, so the history of vital forces was also interesting.
This book also had a great section on Maxwell's Demon, or using information to break the second law of thermodynamics, which I had always wanted a more satisfying answer to.
My two main criticisms are:
1 - The jumps between the different sections - molecular noise, history of vital forces, molecular motors - seemed almost like the author has learned a lot about each subject and wanted to include it all in his book. It seemed a little disjointed; I liked it but I suspect others might find it a bit scattered.
2 - The narrator is pretty good, but mispronounces a TON of words. At first I thought maybe the Brits just pronounce many many words differently than in the US, but many words were definitely wrong, and some seemed to change over the course of the book. I wish the narrator had taken a break when he didn't know a word to look it up, because it takes you out of the book. The most egregious example was calling the 5' and 3' ends of DNA the 5 inch and 3 inch ends, instead of 5 prime and 3 prime ends. I don't know how he could have made this mistake, because even if he was completely clueless, ' means foot, not inch.
This book is about the nanoscale, but he mispronounced nanometer. He pronounced Feynman as Faneman. These are but of few of the many many mistakes. But his narration was pretty good.
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51 people found this helpful
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- RSZ
- 06-12-14
How order arises from molecular chaos
This is an excellent explanation of how the molecular machines of life (the DNA replicators, the ribosomes, the membrane pumps, etc) arose from the random molecular storm. Mr. Hoffman does a great job in explaining the role of chance and physics in this process. I also enjoyed his recount of the history of man's struggle with uncovering these discoveries.
I think those readers without any science background might find the later chapters a challenge.
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8 people found this helpful
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- Gravaman
- 10-08-20
A wonderful science book
A lot of in-depth thinking required. Simply mind-boggling. Protein motors! Ten million ribosomes in each of the 30 trillion human cells!
All of this starts with two cells at conception—all self-generating. Walking myosins, When you don't understand something, go to Khan Academy - AP/College Biology. I will listen over and over. The human body is more complicated than the universe :) But the universe contains billions of human bodies!
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- Karen
- 07-24-18
Excellent convergence biology, physics and chemistry to describe life systems
While many books and articles pertain only to one aspect of the systems and components of living beings, this book brings together multiple disciplines each of which have made enormous contributions to our current understandings of the workings of living beings. It is only by collaboration that we will be able to efficiently and effectively continue to evolve our insights.
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