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Membranes to Molecular Machines
Active Matter and the Remaking of Life
Series: Synthesis
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Membranes to Molecular Machines
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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and
still learning, it may not be perfect - your
feedback is welcome!
Description
Today's science tells us that our bodies are filled with molecular machinery that orchestrates all sorts of life processes. When we think, microscopic "channels" open and close in our brain cell membranes; when we run, tiny "motors" spin in our muscle cell membranes; and when we see, light operates "molecular switches" in our eyes and nerves. A molecular-mechanical vision of life has become commonplace in both the halls of philosophy and the offices of drug companies, where researchers are developing “proton pump inhibitors” or medicines similar to Prozac.
Membranes to Molecular Machines explores just how late twentieth-century science came to think of our cells and bodies this way. This story is told through the lens of membrane research, an unwritten history at the crossroads of molecular biology, biochemistry, physiology, and the neurosciences, that directly feeds into today's synthetic biology as well as nano- and biotechnology. Mathias Grote shows how these sciences not only have made us think differently about life, but they have also, by reworking what membranes and proteins represent in laboratories, allowed us to manipulate life as "active matter" in new ways.
Covering the science of biological membranes in the United States and Europe from the mid-1960s to the 1990s, this book connects that history to contemporary work with optogenetics, a method for stimulating individual neurons using light, and will enlighten and provoke anyone interested in the intersection of chemical research and the life sciences—from practitioner to historian to philosopher.
The research described in the book and its central actor, Dieter Oesterhelt, were honoured with the 2021 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award for his contribution to the development of optogenetics.
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Membranes to Molecular Machines
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Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
Membranes to Molecular Machines by Mathias Grote is praised for offering a nuanced understanding of molecular biology's historical progression, beyond the typical DNA-focused narrative. The book explores the understudied realm of molecular machinery, using bacteriorhodopsin as a key example to illustrate the development of biological membrane concepts. It provides a fresh historiographical perspective and contributes to discussions on new materialism in the life sciences of the twentieth century.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780226625157
Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
Format: Hardback
Date Published: 09 July 2019
Country: United States
Imprint: University of Chicago Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 2.0mm
Width: 16.0mm
Height: 24.0mm
Weight: 539g
Pages: 296
About the Author
Mathias Grote is assistant professor at Humboldt-University Berlin, Germany.
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