The marvelous microbes that made life on Earth possible and support our very existence For almost four billion years, microbes had the primordial oceans all to themselves. The stewards of Earth, these organisms transformed the chemistry of our planet to make it habitable for plants, animals, and us. Life's Engines takes readers deep into the microscopic world to explore how these marvelous creatures made life on Earth possible—and how human life today would cease to exist without them. 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. A vibrantly entertaining book about the microbes that support our very existence, Life's Engines will inspire wonder about these elegantly complex nanomachines that have driven life since its origin. It also issues a timely warning about the dangers of tinkering with that machinery to make it more "efficient" at meeting the ever-growing demands of humans in the coming century.

This book challenges the current wisdom of how cells work. It emphasizes the role of cell water and the gel-like nature of the cell, building on these features to explore the mechanisms of communication, transport, contraction, division, and other essential cell functions. Written for the non-expert, the book is profound enough for biologists, chemists, physicists and engineers.--From publisher description.

She's a hurricane. He's a pariah. The world is in their hands. "THE LIFE ENGINE is a tremendous debut novel. The twists and turns were riveting... (I) couldn't put it down. Rick Baker is a hot new talent in the publishing world." - (Stephen Frey, New York Times Best Selling Author)Ian Wolfe is a man disgraced. The former Olympic decathlete went from cereal boxes to tabloids after a doping scandal, and he hopes a second career as a CIA officer can get him back in America's good graces. April Gentry is a woman on a mission. She's a world-renowned ethnobotanist, and she's made it her calling to fulfill her late father's legacy by bringing a life-altering medication from the Amazon to the general public.And though he is the last person on earth she wants to trust, when Gentry' is wrongly accused of hacking into a CIA satellite, Wolfe is the only person who's willing to fight to clear her name. There's just one catch: he'll have to defy the agency that gave him a second chance to do it.Pursued by every law enforcement agency in America, as well as a mysterious man who thinks he's one of the angels of the apocalypse, Wolfe and Gentry must race across two continents calling on ancient arts to advanced tech to survive. Failure won't just put them in danger. April's very life is in Wolfe's hands.'The Life Engine' is an ecological thriller that takes government action through a Da Vinci Code-like puzzle by way of the Amazon rainforest. "Witty, atmospheric, possessing uncommon depth." If you like fast-paced environmental suspense, thought-provoking plots, and breathless action, then you'll love Rick Baker's intrigue-laced debut novel. Buy 'The Life Engine' to start the international adventure today!

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.

LIFE Magazine is the treasured photographic magazine that chronicled the 20th Century. It now lives on at LIFE.com, the largest, most amazing collection of professional photography on the internet. Users can browse, search and view photos of today’s people and events. They have free access to share, print and post images for personal use.

LIFE Magazine is the treasured photographic magazine that chronicled the 20th Century. It now lives on at LIFE.com, the largest, most amazing collection of professional photography on the internet. Users can browse, search and view photos of today’s people and events. They have free access to share, print and post images for personal use.