Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the second edition
- Chapter 1 Energy transformation
- Chapter 2 The First Law of Thermodynamics
- Chapter 3 The Second Law of Thermodynamics
- Chapter 4 Gibbs free energy – theory
- Chapter 5 Gibbs free energy – applications
- Chapter 6 Statistical thermodynamics
- Chapter 7 Binding equilibria
- Chapter 8 Reaction kinetics
- Chapter 9 The frontier of biological thermodynamics
- Appendices
- Glossary
- Index of names
- Subject index
- References
Chapter 2 - The First Law of Thermodynamics
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the second edition
- Chapter 1 Energy transformation
- Chapter 2 The First Law of Thermodynamics
- Chapter 3 The Second Law of Thermodynamics
- Chapter 4 Gibbs free energy – theory
- Chapter 5 Gibbs free energy – applications
- Chapter 6 Statistical thermodynamics
- Chapter 7 Binding equilibria
- Chapter 8 Reaction kinetics
- Chapter 9 The frontier of biological thermodynamics
- Appendices
- Glossary
- Index of names
- Subject index
- References
Summary
Introduction
To gain a good understanding of the laws of thermodynamics, it will help to develop an appreciation of the meaning of the words law and thermodynamics. Let's take a moment to think about these words before launching into a detailed discussion of how we might unpack the content of how the laws can be formulated. We are aided in this quest by the nature of science itself, which unlike ordinary prose and poetry aims to give words a more or less precise definition.
We are familiar with the concept of law from our everyday experience. Laws are rules that we are not supposed to break; they exist to protect someone's interests, possibly our own, and there may be a penalty to pay if the one who breaks a law gets caught. Such are civil and criminal laws. Physical laws are similar but different. They are similar in that they regulate something, namely how matter behaves under given circumstances. They are different in that violations are not known to have occurred, and they describe what is considered to be a basic property of nature. If a violation of a physical law should ever seem to have occurred, you will think first that the experiment has gone wrong at some stage, and second that maybe the “law” isn't a law after all.
Here's an example. Galileo, like Copernicus, believed that the orbits of the known planets were circles; the circle being the shaper of perfection and perfection being of the heavens.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Biological Thermodynamics , pp. 25 - 57Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008
References
(1998). The Physical Basis of Biochemistry: the Foundations of Molecular Biophysics, ch. 11. New York: Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, & (1995). Differential scanning and titration calorimetric studies of macromolecules in aqueous solution. Journal of Thermal Analysis, 45, 599–613.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1998). Biology by Numbers: an Encouragement to Quantitative Thinking, ch. 3.1–3.3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1993). Letters of Hermann von Helmholtz to His Parents: The Medical Education of a German Scientist, 1837–1846. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag.Google Scholar
(2004). An Institute for an Empire: The Physikalish–Technische Reichsanstalt, 1871–1918. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
& (1972). Introduction to Bioenergetics: Thermodynamics for the Biologist: A Learning Program for Students of the Biological and Medical Sciences.Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders.Google Scholar
, , & (1991). Thermodynamic consequences of the removal of a disulfide bridge from hen lysozyme. Journal of Molecular Biology, 225, 939–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1993). Proteins: Structure and Molecular Properties, 2nd edn, ch. 4.4.3. New York: W. H. Freeman.Google Scholar
, , & (2002). Allometric cascade as a unifying principle of body mass effects on metabolism. Nature, 417, 166–70.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
(1994). The Mathematical Universe: An Alphabetical Journey through the Great Proofs, Problems, and Personalities, ch. H. New York: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Encyclopædia Britannica CD 98, “Drug,” “Enthalpy,” “Heat Capacity,” “Heat of Reaction,” “Heat Transfer,” “Infection,” “Internal Energy,” “Kinetic Theory of Gases,” “Latent Heat,” “Maxwell–Boltzmann Distribution Law,” “Principles of Thermodynamics,” “Specific Heat,” “Temperature,” “Thermal Energy,” “Thermocouple,” and “Work.”
, & (1963). Lectures on Physics, vol. I, cc. 14–1, 44–1, 45–1 & 45–2. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
(1999). Proteins, Enzymes, Genes: the Interplay of Chemistry and Biology. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
F. (1989). Review of Medical Physiology, 13th edn, ch.17. New York: McGraw-Hill/Appleton & Lange.Google Scholar
& (1987). General definitions of work and heat in thermodynamic processes, Journal of Chemical Education, 64, 660–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1993). The Structural Thermodynamics of Protein Folding, ch. 2. Ph.D. thesis, The Johns Hopkins University.Google Scholar
& (1996). The N-terminal domains of tensin and auxilin are phosphatase homologues. Protein Science, 5, 2543–646.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
& (2005). Nonlinear dynamics of homeothermic temperature control in skunk cabbage, Symplocarpus foetidus, Physical Review E, 72, 051909, 6 pages.Google ScholarPubMed
, , & (2004). Temperature-triggered periodical thermogenic oscillations in skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus); Plant and Cell Physiology, 45, 257–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , , & (2002). Micromachined nanocalorimetric sensor for ultra-low volume cell based assays. Analytical Chemistry, 74, 2190–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
& (1967). Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics in Biophysics, ch. 1. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
& (1998). Modern Thermodynamics: from Heat Engines to Dissipative Structures, ch. 2. Chichester: John Wiley.Google Scholar
, & (1995). Enthalpic contribution to protein stability: insights from atom-based calculations and statistical mechanics. Advances in Protein Chemistry, 47, 231–306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(2003). Metabolism: ecology shapes bird bioenergetics. Nature, 426, 620–1.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Microsoft Encarta 96 Encyclopedia, “Thermodynamics.”
Pearson, H. (2004). Low-carb diets get thermodynamic defence. Nature News, 16 August.CrossRef
(1998). Thermodynamics of Chemical Processes, cc. 1 & 2. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
, , & (1997). Muscular force in running turkeys: the economy of minimizing work, Science, 275, 1113–15.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
(2006a). What is this thing called “me”? Part 4: The buffered, isothermal, living engine. American Laboratory News, January, 4–8.Google Scholar
(2006b). What is this thing called “me”? Part 5 : The stationary, buffered, isothermal living engine. American Laboratory, May, 4–10.Google Scholar
(2006c). What is this thing called “me”? Part 6: The controlled, stationary, buffered, isothermal living engine. American Laboratory, November/December, 6–12.Google Scholar
& (1991). Energy in Biological Systems, cc. 1.2 & 1.3. London: Chapman & Hall.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1995). Bond energies and enthalpies: an often neglected difference. Journal of Chemical Education, 72, 497–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
& (1995). Biochemistry, 2nd edn, cc. 2-2, 3, 4, 11-2, 15-4–15-6, 16, 18-1, 19-1, 28-3 & 34-4B. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
E. (1985). Physiology of cold tolerance in insects. Physiological Review, 65, 799–832.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
- 1
- Cited by