Peter M. Hoffmann > Quotes

“A nanometer is so small, you would need to slice the width of a human hair one hundred thousand times to reach a nanometer.”
― Peter M. Hoffmann, Life's Ratchet: How Molecular Machines Extract Order from Chaos

“The evolution of a sophisticated machine like kinesin does not require that each part be invented from scratch or that all parts come into existence simultaneously. When it comes to evolution, almost anything goes.”
― Peter M. Hoffmann, Life's Ratchet: How Molecular Machines Extract Order from Chaos

“you can easily see a nanometer-size machine, like a little two-legged creature, wait, then suddenly do a quick step, then wait again, step again, and so on. Is this molecule alive? No, not in the full sense of the word. But watching it stride by, you can see how many such machines, interacting in some regulated way, can make a living being. This surely is where life begins.”
― Peter M. Hoffmann, Life's Ratchet: How Molecular Machines Extract Order from Chaos

“rate at which our bodies transform this energy is 10.5 million joules divided by 86,400 seconds, or about 120 watts (where 1 watt = 1 joule per second). Far from illuminating a whole city, a human being has about the same power rating as one light bulb.”
― Peter M. Hoffmann, Life's Ratchet: How Molecular Machines Extract Order from Chaos

“The universe was not pregnant with life nor the biosphere with man. Our number came up in the Monte Carlo game. Is it any wonder if, like the person who has just made a million at the casino, we feel strange and a little unreal?”
― Peter M. Hoffmann, Life's Ratchet: How Molecular Machines Extract Order from Chaos

“Faced with such mysteries, many people want to throw up their hands like Darwin and declare that it is not possible to explain life after all. Yet, as we have seen throughout this book, science can turn darkness into light and can reveal deep secrets of life. We have seen that life is governed by chance and necessity.”
― Peter M. Hoffmann, Life's Ratchet: How Molecular Machines Extract Order from Chaos

“In our belief that we are the center of the universe, we have assumed much, just to be proven wrong time and again: No, the solar system does not revolve around Earth. No, the universe does not end beyond Pluto, or even beyond our Milky Way galaxy, but it is much bigger than we ever thought, full of stars in some places, but for the most part filled with staggering emptiness. No, there is no special life force—our bodies are part of nature, run by molecules. And no, we are not a separate creation from all the other animals, but are their close cousins—all, including ourselves, historical accidents of evolution. In short, we are lucky to be here.”
― Peter M. Hoffmann, Life's Ratchet: How Molecular Machines Extract Order from Chaos

“When we feel the need to invoke extraneous principles to assuage our ignorance, it is wiser to hold off.”
― Peter M. Hoffmann, Life's Ratchet: How Molecular Machines Extract Order from Chaos

“Helmholtz was one of the last truly universal scientists. He made significant contributions to medicine, biology, and physics, in areas as diverse as heat in animals, irritability, the vital force, thermodynamics, electro dynamics, the conservation of energy, turbulence in liquids, and the physiology of the senses. His insights were groundbreaking, and most have withstood the test of time.”
― Peter M. Hoffmann, Life's Ratchet: How Molecular Machines Extract Order from Chaos

“At low temperatures, the forces between atoms are stronger than the shaking of the molecular storm and draw atoms together to form structures; at high temperatures, the forces between atoms are no match for the more violent molecular storm, and snowflakes melt.”
― Peter M. Hoffmann, Life's Ratchet: How Molecular Machines Extract Order from Chaos

“What makes an object alive? These hard questions puzzled scientists and philosophers for millennia. Yet, we may be the first generation to glimpse answers to these questions.”
― Peter M. Hoffmann, Life's Ratchet: How Molecular Machines Extract Order from Chaos