The Machinery of Life 2nd ed - D. Goodsell (Springer, 2009) WW.pdf - książki - Bio Med 25 - bibiariel

The Machinery of Life

Second Edition

David S. Goodsell

The Machinery of Life

Second Edition

Copernicus Books

An Imprint of Springer Science þ Business Media

# Springer Science þ Business Media, LLC 2009

transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or

otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in the United States by Copernicus Books,

an imprint of Springer Science þ Business Media.

Copernicus Books

Springer Science þ Business Media

233 Spring Street

New York, NY 10013

www.springer.com

Library of Congress Control Number:

2009921115

Manufactured in the United States of America.

Printed on acid-free paper.

ISBN 978-0-387-84924-9

e-ISBN 978-0-387-84925-6

The Immune System Piercing a Bacterial Cell Wall Our blood contains proteins

that recognize and destroy invading cells and viruses. This illustration shows a

cross section through a bacterial cell (lower half, in greens, blues and purples)

being attacked by proteins in the blood serum (at the top, in yellows and oranges).

Y-shaped antibodies begin the process by binding to the surface of the cell, and are

in turn recognized by the six-armed protein at upper center. This begins a cascade

of actions that ultimately lead to the formation of a membrane attack complex,

shown here piercing the cell wall of the bacterium (1,000,000 X)

Preface

Imagine that we had some way to look directly at the molecules in a living

organism. An x-ray microscope would do the trick, or since we’re dreaming,

perhaps an Asimov-style nanosubmarine (unfortunately, neither is currently

feasible). Think of the wonders we could witness firsthand: antibodies attack-

ing a virus, electrical signals racing down nerve fibers, proteins building new

strands of DNA. Many of the questions puzzling the current cadre of scien-

tists would be answered at a glance. But the nanoscale world of molecules is

separated from our everyday world of experience by a daunting million-fold

difference in size, so the world of molecules is completely invisible.

I created the illustrations in this book to help bridge this gulf and allow us

to see the molecular structure of cells, if not directly, then in an artistic

rendition. I have included two types of illustrations with this goal in mind:

watercolor paintings which magnify a small portion of a living cell by one

million times, showing the arrangement of molecules inside, and computer-

generated pictures, which show the atomic details of individual molecules. In

this second edition of The Machinery of Life, these illustrations are presented

in full color, and they incorporate many of the exciting scientific advances of

the 15 years since the first edition.

As with the first edition, I have used several themes to tie the pictures

together. One is that of scale. Most of us do not have a good concept of the

relative sizes of water molecules, proteins, ribosomes, bacteria, and people.

To assist with this understanding, I have drawn the illustrations at a few

consistent magnifications. The views showing the interiors of living cells, as in

the Frontispiece and scattered through the last half of the book, are all drawn

at one million times magnification. Because of this consistent scale, you can

flip between pages in these chapters and compare the sizes of DNA, lipid

membranes, nuclear pores, and all of the other molecular machinery of living

cells. The computer-generated figures of individual molecules are also drawn

at a few consistent scales to allow easy comparison.

I have also drawn the illustrations using a consistent style, again to allow

easy comparison. A space-filling representation that shows each atom as a

sphere is used for all the illustrations of molecules. The shapes of the

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