Polymers are essential to biology because they can have enough stable degrees of freedom to store the molecular code of heredity and to express the sequences needed to manufacture new molecules. Through these they perform or control virtually every function in life. Although some biopolymers are created and spend their entire career in the relatively large free space inside cells or organelles, many biopolymers must migrate through a narrow passageway to get to their targeted destination. This suggests the questions: How does confining a polymer affect its behavior and function? What does that tell us about the interactions between the monomers that comprise the polymer and the molecules that confine it? Can we design and build devices that mimic the functions of these nanoscale systems? The NATO Advanced Research Workshop brought together for four days in Bikal, Hungary over forty experts in experimental and theoretical biophysics, molecular biology, biophysical chemistry, and biochemistry interested in these questions. Their papers collected in this book provide insight on biological processes involving confinement and form a basis for new biotechnological applications using polymers. In his paper Edmund DiMarzio asks: What is so special about polymers? Why are polymers so prevalent in living things? The chemist says the reason is that a protein made of N amino acids can have any of 20 different kinds at each position along the chain, resulting in 20 N different polymers, and that the complexity of life lies in this variety.

Membrane permeability is fundamental to all cell biology and subcellular biology. The cell exists as a closed unit. Import and export depend upon a number of sophisticated mechanisms, such as active transport, endocytosis, exocytosis, and passive diffusion. These systems are critical for the normal housekeeping physiological functions. However, access to the cell is also taken advantage of by toxic microbes (such as cholera or ptomaine) and when designing drugs.
Ernest Overton, one of the pioneers in lipid membrane research, put forward the first comprehensive theory of lipid membrane structure. His most quoted paper on the osmotic properties of cells laid the foundation for the modern concepts of membrane function, most notably important in anesthesia.
This book is designed to celebrate the centennial anniversary (in the first chapter) of Overton's work. Subsequent chapters present readers with up-to-date concepts of membrane structure and function and the challenge they pose for new explorations.
Key Features
* Provides an historical perspective of Overton's contributions to the theory of narcosis
* Presents an overview of each permeability mechanism, including active transport, endocytosis, exocytosis, and passive diffusion

Update your knowledge of the chemical, biological, and physical properties of liquid-liquid interfaces with Liquid-Liquid Interfaces: Theory and Methods. This valuable reference presents a broadly based account of current research in liquid-liquid interfaces and is ideal for researchers, teachers, and students. Internationally recognized investigators of electrochemical, biological, and photochemical effects in interfacial phenomena share their own research results and extensively review the results of others working in their area. Because of its unusually wide breadth, this book has something for everyone interested in liquid-liquid interfaces. Topics include interfacial and phase transfer catalysis, electrochemistry and colloidal chemistry, ion and electron transport processes, molecular dynamics, electroanalysis, liquid membranes, emulsions, pharmacology, and artificial photosynthesis. Enlightening discussions explore biotechnological applications, such as drug delivery, separation and purification of nuclear waste, catalysis, mineral extraction processes, and the manufacturing of biosensors and ion-selective electrodes. Liquid-Liquid Interfaces: Theory and Methods is a well-written, informative, one-stop resource that will save you time and energy in your search for the latest information on liquid-liquid interfaces.

Update your knowledge of the chemical, biological, and physical properties of liquid-liquid interfaces with Liquid-Liquid Interfaces: Theory and Methods. This valuable reference presents a broadly based account of current research in liquid-liquid interfaces and is ideal for researchers, teachers, and students. Internationally recognized investigators of electrochemical, biological, and photochemical effects in interfacial phenomena share their own research results and extensively review the results of others working in their area. Because of its unusually wide breadth, this book has something for everyone interested in liquid-liquid interfaces. Topics include interfacial and phase transfer catalysis, electrochemistry and colloidal chemistry, ion and electron transport processes, molecular dynamics, electroanalysis, liquid membranes, emulsions, pharmacology, and artificial photosynthesis. Enlightening discussions explore biotechnological applications, such as drug delivery, separation and purification of nuclear waste, catalysis, mineral extraction processes, and the manufacturing of biosensors and ion-selective electrodes. Liquid-Liquid Interfaces: Theory and Methods is a well-written, informative, one-stop resource that will save you time and energy in your search for the latest information on liquid-liquid interfaces.

Polymers are essential to biology because they can have enough stable degrees of freedom to store the molecular code of heredity and to express the sequences needed to manufacture new molecules. Through these they perform or control virtually every function in life. Although some biopolymers are created and spend their entire career in the relatively large free space inside cells or organelles, many biopolymers must migrate through a narrow passageway to get to their targeted destination. This suggests the questions: How does confining a polymer affect its behavior and function? What does that tell us about the interactions between the monomers that comprise the polymer and the molecules that confine it? Can we design and build devices that mimic the functions of these nanoscale systems? The NATO Advanced Research Workshop brought together for four days in Bikal, Hungary over forty experts in experimental and theoretical biophysics, molecular biology, biophysical chemistry, and biochemistry interested in these questions. Their papers collected in this book provide insight on biological processes involving confinement and form a basis for new biotechnological applications using polymers. In his paper Edmund DiMarzio asks: What is so special about polymers? Why are polymers so prevalent in living things? The chemist says the reason is that a protein made of N amino acids can have any of 20 different kinds at each position along the chain, resulting in 20 N different polymers, and that the complexity of life lies in this variety.

This is an introductory text and laboratory manual to be used primarily in undergraduate courses. It is also useful for graduate students and research scientists who require an introduction to the theory and methods of nanopore sequencing. The book has clear explanations of the principles of this emerging technology, together with instructional material written by experts that describes how to use a MinION nanopore instrument for sequencing in research or the classroom.At Harvard University the book serves as a textbook and lab manual for a university laboratory course designed to intensify the intellectual experience of incoming undergraduates while exploring biology as a field of concentration. Nanopore sequencing is an ideal topic as a path to encourage students about the range of courses they will take in Biology by pre-emptively addressing the complaint about having to take a course in Physics or Maths while majoring in Biology. The book addresses this complaint by concretely demonstrating the range of topics - from electricity to biochemistry, protein structure, molecular engineering, and informatics - that a student will have to master in subsequent courses if he or she is to become a scientist who truly understands what his or her biology instrument is measuring when investigating biological phenomena.

Our knowledge of our solar system has passed the point of no return. Increasingly, it seems possible that scientists will soon discover how life is created on habitable planets like Earth and Mars. Scientists have responded to a renewed public interest in the origin of life with research, but many questions still remain unanswered in the broader conversation. Other questions can be answered by the laws of chemistry and physics, but questions surrounding the origin of life are best answered by reasonable extrapolations of what scientists know from observing the Earth and its solar system. Origin of Life: What Everyone Needs to Know (R) is a comprehensive scientific guide on the origin of life. David W. Deamer sets out to answer the top forty questions about the origin of life, including: Where do the atoms of life come from? How old is Earth? What was the Earth like before life originated? Where does water come from? How did evolution begin? After he provides the informational answer for each question, there is a follow-up: How do we know? This question expands the horizon of the whole book, and provides scientific reasoning and explanations for hypotheses surrounding the origin of life. How scientists come to their conclusions and why we can trust these answers is an important question, and Deamer provides answers to each big question surrounding the origin of life, from what it is to why we should be curious.

This is an introductory text and laboratory manual to be used primarily in undergraduate courses. It is also useful for graduate students and research scientists who require an introduction to the theory and methods of nanopore sequencing. The book has clear explanations of the principles of this emerging technology, together with instructional material written by experts that describes how to use a MinION nanopore instrument for sequencing in research or the classroom.At Harvard University the book serves as a textbook and lab manual for a university laboratory course designed to intensify the intellectual experience of incoming undergraduates while exploring biology as a field of concentration. Nanopore sequencing is an ideal topic as a path to encourage students about the range of courses they will take in Biology by pre-emptively addressing the complaint about having to take a course in Physics or Maths while majoring in Biology. The book addresses this complaint by concretely demonstrating the range of topics - from electricity to biochemistry, protein structure, molecular engineering, and informatics - that a student will have to master in subsequent courses if he or she is to become a scientist who truly understands what his or her biology instrument is measuring when investigating biological phenomena.

In Assembling Life, David Deamer addresses questions that are the cutting edge of research on the origin of life. For instance, how did non-living organic compounds assemble into the first forms of primitive cellular life? What was the source of those compounds and the energy that produced the first nucleic acids? Did life begin in the ocean or in fresh water on terrestrial land masses? Could life have begun on Mars? The book provides an overview of conditions on the early Earth four billion years ago and explains why fresh water hot springs are a plausible alternative to salty seawater as a site where life can begin. Deamer describes his studies of organic compounds that were likely to be available in the prebiotic environment and the volcanic conditions that can drive chemical evolution toward the origin of life. The book is not exclusively Earth-centric, but instead considers whether life could begin elsewhere in our solar system. Deamer does not propose how life did begin, because we can never know that with certainty. Instead, his goal is to understand how life can begin on any habitable planet, with Earth so far being the only known example.

En El origen de la vida: lo que todo el mundo necesita saber, David W. Deamer ha escrito una gu�a completa sobre el origen de la vida que est� organizada en tres secciones. La primera secciÓn aborda preguntas como: ¿De dÓnde provienen los �tomos de la vida? ¿QuÉ edad tiene la Tierra? ¿CÓmo era la Tierra antes de que comenzara la vida? ¿De dÓnde viene el agua? DespuÉs de que se responde cada pregunta, hay un seguimiento: ¿CÓmo lo sabemos? Esto ampl�a el horizonte del libro, explicando cÓmo los cient�ficos llegan a conclusiones y por quÉ podemos confiar en estas respuestas. La segunda secciÓn describe cÓmo ciertas molÉculas org�nicas pueden ensamblarse espont�neamente en poblaciones de protocÉlulas que pueden someterse a selecciÓn y evolucionar hacia sistemas vivos primitivos. Aqu� Deamer propone un concepto verdaderamente novedoso de que la vida no comenzÓ en el ocÉano sino en fuentes termales de agua dulce en masas de tierra volc�nica que se asemejan a Hawaii hoy. El verdadero conocimiento no es solo lo que sabemos, sino que es igualmente importante lo que aÚn no sabemos. En la tercera secciÓn, Deamer enumera las preguntas pendientes que deben abordarse antes de que podamos finalmente responder a una pregunta fundamental de la biolog�a: ¿CÓmo puede comenzar la vida? In Origin of Life: What Everyone Needs to Know  , David W. Deamer has written a comprehensive guide to the origin of life that is organized in three sections. The first section addresses questions such as: Where do the atoms of life come from? How old is Earth? What was the Earth like before life began? Where does water come from? After each question is answered, there is a follow-up: How do we know? This expands the horizon of the book, explaining how scientists reach conclusions and why we can trust these answers. The second section describes how certain organic molecules can spontaneously assemble into populations of protocells that can undergo selection and evolve toward primitive living systems. Here Deamer proposes a truly novel concept that life did not begin in the ocean but instead in fresh water hot springs on volcanic land masses resembling Hawaii today. True knowledge is not just what we know, but equally important is what we don't yet know. In the third section Deamer lists the outstanding questions that must be addressed before we can finally answer a fundamental question of biology: How can life begin?