The molecules of life: Physical and chemical principles

The Molecules of Life, a new undergraduate textbook, deepens our understanding of how life functions by illuminating the physical principles underpinning biology phenomena. The basic ideas of energy, entropy, equilibrium thermodynamics, transport processes and reaction kinetics are closely related to exciting issues in contemporary biology, such as protein folding, chaperones and prion diseases, DNA polymerase and ribosome fidelity, DNA recognition, drug design, signal transduction, ion channel function, motor protein action and the versatility of enzyme mechanism.

Part I. Biological Molecules 1. From Genes to RNA to Proteins 2. Nucleic Acid Structure 3. Glycans and Lipids 4. Protein Structure 5. Evolutionary Variation in Proteins. Part II. Energy and Entropy 6. Energy and Intermolecular Forces 7. Entropy 8. Linking Energy and Entropy. Part III. Free Energy 9. Free Energy 10. Chemical Potential and Drive to Equilibrium 11. Voltages and Free Energy. Part IV. Molecular Interactions 12. Thermodynamics of Binding 13. Specificity of Macromolecular Recognition 14. Allostery. Part V. Kinetics and Catalysis 15. Rates of Molecular Processes 16. Enzyme Catalysis 17. Diffusion and Transport. Part VI. Assembly and Activity 18. Folding 19. Fidelity in DNA and Protein Synthesis.