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Designed for the non-specialist, the explanations and illustrations used here describe the work, personalities, collaborations, and idiosyncrasies of four of the most distinguished Nobel Laureates of the twentieth century. They exploited a discovery made over a century ago about the nature of X-rays, and thereby created a new branch of science. This enabled them to elucidate, in atomic detail, the structure and mode of action of molecules of the living world: enzymes, vitamins, and viruses, as well as antibiotics. Perutz and Kendrew, from their pioneering work using X-ray diffraction on haemoglobin and myoglobin, the proteins that transport and store oxygen in all animals, led them to establish in 1962 one of the most successful research centres ever—the Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge. Medicines discovered there are used worldwide to treat leukaemia, arthritis, and other diseases. Their work also led to the creation in the United States of the Protein Data Bank that guides scientists in understanding the misfolding of proteins, which cause Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and other neurodegenerative diseases. This book is first a memoir of these scientists and their contemporaries, many of them friends of the author. Second, it is an insight into the great excitement associated with structural molecular biology, which directly informs our understanding of ourselves. Third, it describes how two renowned research centres in the United Kingdom—the LMB and the Davy-Faraday Research Laboratory—achieved iconic status. It also highlights the importance of the popularization of science, of which Bragg, Perutz, and Kendrew, as well as Dorothy Hodgkin (who solved the structures of penicillin and vitamin B₁₂) were experts.

X-ray scattering is a well-established technique in materials science. Several excellent textbooks exist in the field, typically written by physicists who use mathematics to make things clear. Often these books do not reach students and scientists in the field of soft matter (polymers, liquid crystals, colloids, and self-assembled organic systems), who usually have a chemical-oriented background with limited mathematics. Moreover, often these people like to know more about x-ray scattering as a technique to be used, but do not necessarily intend to become an expert. This volume is unique in trying to accommodate both points. The aim of the book is to explain basic principles and applications of x-ray scattering in a simple way. The intention is a paperback of limited size that people will like to have on hand rather than on a shelf. Second, it includes a large variety of examples of x-ray scattering of soft matter with, at the end of each chapter, a more elaborate case study. Third, the book contains a separate chapter on the different types of order/disorder in soft matter that play such an important role in modern self-assembling systems. Finally, the last chapter treats soft matter surfaces and thin film that are increasingly used in coatings and in many technological applications (liquid crystal displays, nanostructured block copolymer films). There is a niche for a book of this type that potentially addresses a large group of (soft matter) students and scientists.

The technique of small angle solution scattering has been revolutionized in the last two decades. Exponential increases in computing power, parallel algorithm development, and the development of synchrotron, free-electron X-ray sources, and neutron sources, have combined to allow new classes of studies for biological specimens. These include time-resolved experiments in which functional motions of proteins are monitored on a picosecond timescale, and the first steps towards determining actual electron density fluctuations within particles. In addition, more traditional experiments involving the determination of size and shape, and contrast matching that isolate substructures such as nucleic acid, have become much more straightforward to carry out, and simultaneously require much less material. These new capabilities have sparked an upsurge of interest in solution scattering on the part of investigators in related disciplines. Thus, this book seeks to guide structural biologists to understand the basics of small angle solution scattering in both the X-ray and neutron case, to appreciate its strengths, and to be cognizant of its limitations. It is also directed at those who have a general interest in its potential. The book focuses on three areas: theory, practical aspects and applications, and the potential of developing areas. It is an introduction and guide to the field but not a comprehensive treatment of all the potential applications.

This book provides an overview of fundamental methods and advanced topics associated with complex, especially biological, fluids. The contents are taken from a graduate level course taught to biomedical engineers, many of whom are math averse. Consequently the book is organized around gentle historical foundations and illustrative tabletop experiments to make for accessible reading. The book begins with derivations of fundamental equations, defined in the simplest terms possible, and adds embellishments one at a time to build toward the analysis of complex fluid dynamics an and introduction to spontaneous pattern formation. Topics covered include elastic surfaces, flow through elastic tubes, pulsatile flows, effects of entrances, branches, and bends, shearing flows, effects of increased Reynolds number, inviscid flows, rheology in complex fluids, statistical mechanics, diffusion, and self-assembly.

The book provides a new conceptual scaffold for further research in biology and cognition by introducing the new field of Cognitive Biology. It is a systems biology approach showing that further progress in this field will depend on a deep recognition of developmental processes, as well as on the consideration of the developed organism as an agent able to modify and control its surrounding environment. The role of cognition, the means through which the organism is able to cope with its environment, cannot be underestimated. In particular, it is shown that this activity is grounded on a theory of information based on Bayesian probabilities. The organism is considered as a cybernetic system able to integrate a processor as a source of variety (the genetic system), a regulator of its own homeostasis (the metabolic system), and a selecting system separating the self from the non-self (the membrane in unicellular organisms).

This book provides a practical guide to molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo simulation techniques used in the modelling of simple and complex liquids. Computer simulation is an essential tool in studying the chemistry and physics of condensed matter, complementing and reinforcing both experiment and theory. Simulations provide detailed information about structure and dynamics, essential to understand the many fluid systems that play a key role in our daily lives: polymers, gels, colloidal suspensions, liquid crystals, biological membranes, and glasses. The second edition of this pioneering book aims to explain how simulation programs work, how to use them, and how to interpret the results, with examples of the latest research in this rapidly evolving field. Accompanying programs in Fortran and Python provide practical, hands-on, illustrations of the ideas in the text.

This book covers the theoretical basis, experimental methods, and practical applications of the dielectric properties of biological systems, such as water, electrolytes and polyelectrolytes, solutions of biological macromolecules, cell suspensions, and cellular systems. The first six chapters cover theoretical, methodological, and experimental aspects of relaxation and dispersion in biological dielectrics at molecular, cellular, and cellular aggregate levels. Applications are presented in the following eight chapters, which are organized in the order of increased complexity, beginning with pure water, amino acids, and proteins, continuing with vesicles and simple cells such as erythrocytes, and then with more complex, organelle-containing cells and cellular aggregates. The first three chapters assume some knowledge of calculus and advanced mathematical methods in electricity and magnetism.

We have 118 known chemical elements as our palette in our context of sustaining our world. Our context is considered in terms of the four spheres of the ancient world: Earth, Air, Fire and Water. This book shows how chemical principles can be used to understand the pressures on our world spanning from greenhouse emissions through freshwater supplies to energy generation and storage. The supply of the chemical elements is key to their contribution to alleviating these pressures. Most synthetic and radioactive elements are not available in sufficient supply to contribute in this. Some solutions, such as wind turbines, batteries, fuel cells and automotive exhaust remediation pose questions about sustainable supplies of critical elements. With an eye on the target of the IPCC of capping the temperature anomaly to 1.5 oC (RCP2.6), options for carbon capture and storage, and the generation of energy and element supply from the sea are assessed. The consequences of the escape of plastics and pharmaceuticals into the wider environment for water integrity are also considered. This book is designed around providing a one semester course for students who have entered at least the second level of university chemistry. It provides explanations and entries to current environmental issues. For students of environmental science, it provides an understanding of the chemical principles underpinning the causes and possible solutions to these issues. Each chapter has a set appropriate study questions.

The aim of this book is to understand networks and the basic principles of their structural organization and evolution. The ideas are presented in a clear and a pedagogical way. Special attention is given to real networks, both natural and artificial, including the Internet and the World Wide Web. Collected empirical data and numerous real applications of existing theories are discussed in detail, as well as the topical problems of communication and other networks.

The name “random walk” for a problem of a displacement of a point in a sequence of independent random steps was coined by Karl Pearson in 1905 in a question posed to readers of “Nature”. The same year, a similar problem was formulated by Albert Einstein in one of his Annus Mirabilis works. Even earlier problem was posed by Louis Bachelier in his thesis devoted to the theory of financial speculations in 1900. Nowadays theory of random walks was proved useful in physics and chemistry (diffusion, reactions, mixing in flows), economics, biology (from animal spread to motion of subcellular structures) and in many other disciplines. The random walk approach serves not only as a model of simple diffusion but of many complex sub‐ and superdiffusive transport processes as well. This book discusses main variants of the random walks and gives the most important mathematical tools for their theoretical description.