Life's Ratchet: How Molecular Machines Extract Order from Chaos (50 page)

Irreversibility,
133–134
,
158

Irritability,
24
,
34–36

experiments disproving vital forces as necessary for,
38–40

Isoleucine,
151–152

Iyengar, Ravi,
236

Jacob, François,
153
,
235

Janssen, Hans,
22

Janssen, Zacharias,
22

Jarzynski, Christopher,
134–136

Jeffries, Steve,
96

John the Evangelist,
15

Joule, James,
37

Jun, Yonggun,
132

Kant, Immanuel,
32–33

KIF1B,
182

Kielmeyer, Carl Friedrich,
33

Kinesin motors,
160–162
,
167

Kinesins,
169
,
170
,
171
,
209

kinesin-1,
176–181
,
232

kinesin-2,
182
,
232

kinesin-3,
182
,
232

kinesin-5,
182
,
233

kinesin-7,
232

classes of,
170

family of,
181–182

G proteins and,
220

measuring speed of,
173–174

regulation of,
232–233

superfamily,
221

Kinetic energy,
70
,
72–75
,
74
,
85

Jarzynski’s equality and,
134–136

Kinetic theory of gases,
60
,
71

Kinetic theory of matter,
133

Krebs cycle,
193
,
194

Lac-operon,
235–236

Lagrange, Joseph Louis,
30

La Mettrie, Julien Offray de,
22–26
,
60

clock analogy and,
25
,
214

denial of soul,
24–25

irritability and,
24
,
34

rejection of chance,
25–26

Landauer, Rolf,
131
,
132

Laplace, Pierre-Simon,
30
,
43
,
54

Large Hadron Collider,
241

Laser trap,
173

Laser tweezers,
173–175

Lavoisier, Antoine,
29–30
,
39
,
193

Law of energy conservation,
37–38
,
40
,
41
,
70
,
74
,
126–127

Law of errors,
54
,
55

The Laws of the Game
(Eigen),
66

Leeuwenhoek, Antonie Philips van,
22

Leibniz, Gottfried,
21
,
37

Lenoir, Timothy,
32
n

Liber De Ludo Aleae
(Cardano),
49

Liebig, Justus von,
39
,
193

Life

chance and necessity and,
214–215
,
246

clock analogy,
25
,
66
,
214

complexity of,
245–246

defining,
1–2
,
3–8
,
229–230

as game of chance,
66

heat and,
17
,
26–30

molecular machines and,
242
,
243–244

noise and chaos and,
3

as process,
229–231

randomness and,
56–60

See also
Living organisms

Life energy,
3–4

Life force,
3–4
,
9–44
,
243

animal heat,
26–30

animism,
11–12

atomism,
13–17

chaos as,
7–8

conservation of force and,
36–41

Darwin and,
41–44

energy and,
10–11

irritability and,
34–36

l’homme machine,
22–26

mechanical philosophy,
19–22
,
30–34

medicine and,
18–19

origin of idea of,
11–13

vitalism,
12–13

See also
Vital forces; Vitalism/vitalists

Life tables,
53–54

Ligase,
204

Liphardt, Jan,
135–136

Lipid molecules, cooperativity and,
104–106
,
107

Liquids, molecular layers of,
118–120

Living organisms

clock analogy,
25
,
66
,
214

electricity and study of,
35–36

as open, dissipative systems,
86–87

watch analogy,
214–216

Loose coupling,
159
,
160
,
162–167

Loschmidt, Josef,
133

Loschmidt’s demon,
133

Lottery,
51–52

Lubrication, at nanoscale,
98

Lucretius,
14

Lysosomes,
169
,
170

Machines, efficiency of,
126–127

Macroscopic world, order of,
68

Macrostates,
75–76

Magic, alchemy and,
18

Man a Machine (L’homme machine)
(La Mettrie),
23
,
24

Mass transport, in snow crystal growth,
102–103

Matei, George,
118

Matrix metalloproteinase (MMP),
209–211

cancer and,
234–235

Matrix metalloproteinase 1 (MMP-1),
210

Matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP-2),
234

Matrix metalloproteinase 14 (MMP-14),
233–234

Matter

graininess of,
98

kinetic theory of,
133

Maxwell, James Clerk,
55
,
68
,
69
,
71
,
125–126

Maxwell’s demon,
128–129
,
131–132
,
156

impossibility of realizing,
137

Smoluchowski’s simplified version,
138

Mayer, Julius Robert von,
37–38
,
137

Mayow, John,
27–28

Mayr, Ernst,
94–95
,
229
,
230
,
239

Meaning, information
vs.,
222–223

Mechanical energy, conversion from chemical energy to,
184–187

Mechanical philosophy,
19–26

conservation of energy and,
36–41

limitations of,
31–34

Mechanism, purpose
vs.,
41–44

Medicine

Galen and,
17–18

Harvey and,
19–20

Memory formation,
237

Mendel, Gregor,
43–44
,
61

Méré, Chevalier de,
50

Messenger RNA (mRNA),
202
,
208
,
209

Micelles,
116

formation of,
104–105
,
106
,
107

Micrographia
(Hooke),
4
,
22

Microscope, invention of,
22

Microstates,
75–76
,
77