A True Life Hack: What Physical 'Life Force' Turns Biology's Wheels?
quantamagazine.org53 points by Prof_Sigmund 2 days ago
53 points by Prof_Sigmund 2 days ago
What I find fascinating is the extreme efficiency of what is effectively an electric motor, reaching nearly 100% efficiency. At human scale we struggle with heat dissipation and friction
But at the same time the motor is extremely finicky/fragile in the source of energy (negentropy) it will accept, while natural life is extremely hardy and adaptable.
I wonder how much of machine-like "efficiency" is actually "overfitting" at the cost of robustness.
at the scale that it operates, the flagella is more a drill than a propeller
there's a good richard feynam video about how things feel when they're that small https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eRCygdW--c
Relevant Smarter Every Day video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPSm9gJkPxU
For some context, a billion years at a 20 minute breeding cycle is 26.3 trillion generations.
> For some context, a billion years at a 20 minute breeding cycle is 26.3 trillion generations.
Which if you want an actual feel for the true scale of things, must be multiplied by (order of magnitude) the number of bacteriums on the planet.