Mechanoelectrical and photon-generating devices in cells and organisms: From molecular machines to macroscopic fields

Abstract

The aim of this essay is to review what we know about the transformation of chemical energy into mechanical, electrical and photonic at the different scales of biological organization. We start from the "classical", short-range mechanoelectrical protein machines emphasizing their capacity to slow down the rate of energy relaxation and to concentrate energy onto a restricted number of freedom degrees. Then we pass to the newly described "low entropy machines" and to the macroscopic electromechanical machines which create circuits of the organismal scales. At last, we come to photonic events, paying a special attention to their regular periodicity within several Hz range and to their relations with cytoskeletal structures and their developmental dynamics. We suggest, that this area of investigations should be related with the theory of self-organization and the notion of coherency.