Middle World: The Restless Heart of Matter and Life.MIDDLE WORLD: The Restless Heart of Matter and Life MARK HAW Ultralarge things, those on the scale of planets and galaxies, and ultrasmall things, on the scale of electrons and quarks, have long captured the imagination of scientists, Haw writes. However, the materials scientist focuses here on the world of molecules, pollen granules Granules Small packets of reactive chemicals stored within cells. Mentioned in: Allergic Rhinitis, Allergies , and cells. He deems this territory the middle world, and he tells its story by starting with a great but generally forgotten botanist, Robert Brown Noun 1. Robert Brown - Scottish botanist who first observed the movement of small particles in fluids now known a Brownian motion (1773-1858) Brown . The nineteenth-century naturalist was fascinated by the sex life of plants and spent hours observing pollen under the microscope. The behavior of these particles--their incessant motion--seemed to contradict the theories of matter that ruled the day. The phenomenon that would eventually become known as Brownian motion Brownian motion Any of various physical phenomena in which some quantity is constantly undergoing small, random fluctuations. It was named for Robert Brown, who was investigating the fertilization process of flowers in 1827 when he noticed a “rapid oscillatory defied some of Newton's deterministic laws of matter. Further work by scientists such as James Clerk Maxwell, Ludwig Boltzmann, and Ruldolf Clausius led to the laws of thermodynamics The laws of thermodynamics, in principle, describe the specifics for the transport of heat and work in thermodynamic processes. Since their conception, however, these laws have become some of the most important in all of physics and other branches of science connected to , which would overturn Newton's errant rules. Albert Einstein in 1905 finally explained Brownian motion in terms of one of his own revolutionary theories. The middle world, Haw explains, is the realm of life's processes because it's the domain of DNA DNA: see nucleic acid. DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid One of two types of nucleic acid (the other is RNA); a complex organic compound found in all living cells and many viruses. It is the chemical substance of genes. , proteins, and other molecular components of cells. Finally, he speculates about what Brownian motion reveals about the nature of life. Macmillan, 2007, 197 p., hardcover, $24.95. |
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