Bioenergetics and Linear Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics

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This book offers a state-of-the-art description of the discipline of nonequilibrium thermodynamics as applied to biophysics and bioenergetics in the linear domain. It is replete with experimental examples not only from the authors’ laboratories but from those of other workers in the field, providing a logical and compact framework for organizing data, from the level of whole tissues to that of sub-cellular organelles. The authors provide the necessary grounding in classical as well as nonequilibrium thermodynamics before moving on to proper pathways, degrees of coupling and energy conversion, isotope interactions and kinetic interpretations, and practical applications. Throughout, experimental and theoretical aspects are fully integrated, and kinetic methods are used to complement the thermodynamic approach.

The systematic correlation of diverse data underlines the strong analogy that often exists between seemingly different systems. Biophysicists, biochemists, bioenergeticists, and physiologists will find that Caplan and Essig offer a remarkably useful tool for application to a wide range of biological problems.