Biological machines: from mills to molecules

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.