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Biological machines: from mills to molecules

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology volume 1, pages 149–152 (2000)Cite this article

Abstract

Although scientific progress is usually represented as being linear, it may, in fact, have a cyclical character ? some discoveries may be forgotten or lost (at least temporarily), and themes may reappear through the centuries. Consider, for example, the concept of 'molecular machines', from the exciting phase of research that flourished in the seventeenth century, to the idea of machines that is at centre stage in modern cell biology.

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Figure 1: Marcello Malpighi (from the Opera Postuma, 1798 Venetian in Folio edition).
Figure 2: Albrecht von Haller (from the first edition of his Elementa physiologiae42).
Figure 3: The metaphor of a 'machine', applied to living organisms.

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Acknowledgements

This article has benefited from discussions with A. Cattaneo of the International School for Advanced Studies (S.I.S.S.A.) of Trieste, and has been made possible by bibliographical help from L. LIannucci of the University of Pisa. I also thank L. Galli-Resta, A. Pignatelli and B. Pelucchi for critically reading the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Biologia Università di Ferrara, Via Borsari 46, Ferrara, 44100, Italy

    Marco Piccolino

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  1. Marco Piccolino
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FURTHER INFORMATION

Piccolino lab page

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF LIFE SCIENCES

A. Huxley

Antibody function

Bacterial flagella

Energy cycle in vertebrates

Enzyme kinetics; steady state

E. Starling

History of biochemistry

L. Spallanzani

Nervous and immune system interactions

Photosynthesis

Protein translation initiation

M. Schleiden

T. Schwann

W. Bayliss

W. Cannon

W. Harvey

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Piccolino, M. Biological machines: from mills to molecules. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 1, 149–152 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35040097

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