Free Energy Transduction and Biochemical Cycle Kinetics

This three-part treatment translates the highly technical language of the author's important research monographs on the theory of free energy transfer in biology, making the subject more accessible to students and investigators entering the field. Designed for an upper-level class in biochemistry or biophysics, the text can also be used for independent study.

The first chapter presents a self-contained and elementary discussion of the principles of free energy transduction. Its survey encompasses the effects of thermodynamic forces; operation, cycle, and transition fluxes; efficiency and the rate of free energy dissipation; and fluxes and forces near equilibrium. The second chapter is a little more advanced in its examinations of the diagram method for calculating steady-state probabilities and cycle fluxes. The third chapter is increasingly sophisticated, introducing free energy levels of the state in a kinetic diagram. Primarily of conceptual interest, it is also essential in understanding muscle contraction and related motility systems at the molecular level.