Enzyme catalysis biochemical thermodynamics

Spectroscopy will also be vital if and when we can search the atmospheres of potentially habitable planets for the presence of molecules that indicate the existence of life, a topic discussed in Chap. 5. The discussion of intermolecular forces, especially hydrogen bonding, in Sect. 1.4 serves as an introductiOTi to Chap. 6, which is devoted to the role in biochemical systems of a molecule, water, whose universality on Earth might blind us to its remarkable properties. Quite a lot of this introductory chapter has been devoted to thermodynamics. The role and importance of thermodynamics when we consider what conditions might lead to and sustain life are particularly brought out in some of the later chapters of this book. The forces between dissolved species and their solvent and between molecules that are at the boundary of solubility and therefore can form micelles and lipid bilayers were introduced in Sect. 1.4. These species and their properties re-emerge in Chap. 9 as does the topic of enzyme catalysis introduced in Sect. 1.6. 

---