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This small book is a simplified, abbreviated, and updated version of the author's Free Energy Transduction in Biology, published in 1977 (Academic Press, New York). The present book is meant to be a textbook for a class or for self-study. The first chapter gives a self-contained and elementary discussion of the principles of free energy transduction in biology. Section 5 includes new material on the Onsager coefficients Lij (for systems near equilibrium) not avail­ able in 1977. Some readers may wish to study the first chapter only. The second chapteris a little more sophisticated, and deals with the so-called diagram method for calculating steady-state probabili­ ties and cycle fluxes. Although these concepts are useful in the analysis of free energy transduction systems, they have an intrinsic importance and interest. Section 8 summarizes quite recent new results not included in the 1977 book. The third chapter is again a step more sophisticated. Some readers may wish to omit it. Free energy levels of the states in a kinetic diagram are introduced. This topic is primarily of conceptual inter­ est for ordinary kinetic diagrams but it is essential in understanding muscle contraction (and related systems) at the molecular level. Contents Preface................................. vii................ Chapter 1 Survey of the Elements of Free Energy Transduction........................ 1 1. States, Diagrams, Cycles, and Free Energy Transduction...................... 2 2. Thermodynamic Forces................ 12.... 3. Operational, Cycle, and Transition Fluxes..... 20 4. Efficiency and the Rate of Free Energy Dissipation.................. 24......

Free Energy Transduction in Biology: The Steady-State Kinetic and Thermodynamic Formalism focuses on the steady-state kinetic and thermodynamic formalism related to free energy transduction. As the word''formalism''implies, the discussion concerns general principles and methods and not details of proposed mechanisms in the various special cases. Organized into seven chapters, this book first describes the diagram method, which is the main analytical tool in the study of discrete state, cycling system. The next chapter describes the essential topic of cycles and cycle fluxes. Some chapters discuss the more important bioenergetic principles that emerge from the diagram approach. This book is also concerned with somewhat more specialized aspects of the subject (stochastics and fluctuations) and interacting subsystems and multienzyme complexes, including oxidative phosphorylation.