Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute on Thermochemistry Today and Its Role in the Immediate Future, Viano do Castelo, Portugal, July 5-15, 1982

Thermodynamics is fundamental to university and college curricula in chemistry, physics, engineering and many life sciences around the world. It is also notoriously difficult for students to understand, learn and apply. What makes this book different, and special, is the clarity of the text. The writing style is fluid, natural and lucid, and everything is explained in a logical and transparent manner. Thermodynamics is a deep, and important, branch of science, and this book does not make it "easy". But it does make it intelligible. This book introduces a new, 'Fourth Law' of Thermodynamics' based on the notion of Gibbs free energy, which underpins almost every application of thermodynamics and which the authors claim is worthy of recognition as a 'law'. The last four chapters bring thermodynamics into the twenty-first century, dealing with bioenergetics (how living systems capture and use free energy), macromolecule assembly (how proteins fold), and macromolecular aggregation (how, for example, virus capsids assemble). This is of great current relevance to students of biochemistry, biochemical engineering and pharmacy, and is covered in very few other texts on thermodynamics. The book also contains many novel and effective examples, such as the explanation of why friction is irreversible, the proof of the depression of the freezing point, and the explanation of the biochemical standard state.

First Published in 1986, this two-volume set offers comprehensive insight into the testing of toxic substances using microorganisms as reference. Carefully compiled and filled with a vast repertoire of notes, diagrams, and references this book serves as a useful reference for students of medicine and other practitioners in their respective fields.

This book offers a broad discussion of the concepts required to understand the thermodynamic stability of molecules and bonds and a description of the most important condensed-phase techniques that have been used to obtain that information. Above all, this book attempts to provide useful guidelines on how to choose the "best" data and how to use it to understand chemistry. Although the book assumes some basic knowledge on physical-chemistry, it has been written in a "textbook" style and most topics are addressed in a way that is accessible to advanced undergraduate students. Many examples are given throughout the text, involving a variety of molecules. This text will provide a good starting point for those who wish to initiate in the field or simply to understand how to assess, to estimate, and to use thermochemical data. It will therefore appeal to a broad range of practicing chemists and particularly to those interested in energetics-structure-reactivity relationships.