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Provides an introduction to the structure and function of biomolecules --- especially proteins --- and the physical tools used to investigate them
The discussion concentrates on physical tools and properties, emphasizing techniques that are contributing to new developments and avoiding those that are already well established and whose results have already been exploited fully
New tools appear regularly - synchrotron radiation, proton radiology, holography, optical tweezers, and muon radiography, for example, have all been used to open new areas of understanding
List of contents
Biomolecules.- The Hierarchy of Living Things.- Information and Function.- Biomolecules, Spin Glasses, Glasses, and Solids (R. H. Austin1).- Proteins.- Nucleic Acids.- The Genetic Code.- Lipids and Membranes.- Spatial structure of proteins: measure-.- The Secondary Structure.- Tertiary Structure of Proteins.- Myoglobin and Hemoglobin.- The energy landscape and dynamics of.- Conformational Substates.- The Organization of the Energy Landscape.- Reaction Theory.- Supercooled Liquids and Glasses.- Function and dynamics.- Protein Dynamics.- Protein Quantum Dynamics? (R. H. Austin1).- Creative Homework: Dynamics and Function.- Appendices: tools and concepts for the.- Chemical Forces.- Acids and Bases for Physicists.- Thermodynamics for Physicists.- Quantum Chemistry for Physicists.- Energy Levels from Nuclei to Proteins.- Interaction of Radiation with Molecules.- Water (R. H. Austin1).- Scattering of Photons: X-Ray Diffraction.- Electronic Excitations.- Vibrations.- The Nucleus as a Probe (C. E. Schulz1).- Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and Molecular Structure Dynamics (R. H. Austin1).- Neutron Diffraction.
About the author
A leader in physics research for more than half a century, Hans Frauenfelder spent 40 years as a professor and researcher at the University of Illinois before moving on to Los Alamos Laboratory, where he is currently the director for the Center for Nonlinear Studies. Frauenfelder has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Academy Leopoldina and the American Philosophical Society. He also is the recipient of numerous prestigious scientific fellowships and honors.
Robert Austin is Professor at Copenhagen Business School and Associate Professor at Harvard Business School, where he chairs the executive education program for CIOs.
Summary
With growing connections between physics and the life sciences, this text introduces the terminology and the biological systems physicists encounter. It sets out the dynamics of complex systems, and provides a problem-solving challenge from the literature.
Report
From the reviews:
"It appears to be written for advanced undergraduates and graduates in physics who are newcomers to biophysics and biochemistry. ... The book builds from Frauenfelder's sketches and hand-drawn diagrams, which impart to the volume a personal touch, to its major theme: Frauenfelder's insight that protein structures undergo conformational transitions - proteinquakes - through sub-states of approximately equal energy in a rugged, multi-dimensional, conformational-energy landscape." (H. Richard Leuchtag, Physics Today, May, 2011)
