Physical Chemistry for the Biological Sciences

Brief Contents

• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: The First Law: Energy is Conserved
• Chapter 3: The Second Law: The Entropy of the Universe Increases
• Chapter 4: Free Energy and Chemical Equilibria
• Chapter 5: The Statistical Foundations of Biophysical Chemistry
• Chapter 6: Physical Equilibria
• Chapter 7: Electrochemistry
• Chapter 8: The Motion of Biological Molecules
• Chapter 9: Kinetics: Rates of Chemical Reactions
• Chapter 10: Enzyme Kinetics
• Chapter 11: Molecular Structures and Interactions: Theory
• Chapter 12: Molecular Structures and Interactions: Biomolecules
• Chapter 13: Optical Spectroscopy
• Chapter 14: Magnetic Resonance
• Chapter 15: Macromolecular Structure and X-Ray Diffraction

Ignacio Tinoco was an undergraduate at the University of New Mexico, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin, and a postdoctoral fellow at Yale. He then went to the University of California, Berkeley, where he has remained. His research interest has been on the structures of nucleic acids, particularly RNA. He was chairman of the Department of Energy committee that recommended in 1987 a major initiative to sequence the human genome. His present research is on unfolding single RNA molecules by force.

 

Kenneth Sauer grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and received his A.B. in chemistry from Oberlin College. Following his Ph.D. studies in gas-phase physical chemistry at Harvard, he spent three years teaching at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon. A postdoctoral opportunity to learn from Melvin Calvin about photosynthesis in plants led him to the University of California, Berkeley, where he has been since 1960. Teaching general chemistry and biophysical chemistry in the Chemistry Department has complemented research in the Physical Biosciences Division of the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab involving spectroscopic studies of photosynthetic light reactions and their role in water oxidation. His other activities include reading, renaissance and baroque choral music, canoeing, and exploring the Sierra Nevada with his family and friends.
 

James C. Wang was on the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley, from 1966 to 1977. He then joined the faculty of Harvard University, where he is presently Mallinckrodt Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. His research focuses on DNA and enzymes that act on DNA, especially a class of enzymes known as DNA topoisomerases. He has taught courses in biophysical chemistry and molecular biology and has published over 200 research articles. He is a member of Academia Sinica, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the U.S. National Academy of