An Introduction to the Physical Chemistry of Biological Organization

Book excerpt: This book introduces both physical and biological scientists to important thermodynamic and kinetic interpretations of living systems that involve major conceptual developments in the application of physio-chemical ideas. A concluding discussion relates these developments to other widely discussed ideas that have been recently applied to living systems, including thermodynamic aspects of evolution, information theory, and hierarchy and the question of reductionism. Students and researchers in both physical and biological science will find this mathematically simplified account to be a clear and accessible introduction to the physical chemistry of biological organization.