This book gathers original contributions from a selected group of distinguished researchers that are actively working in the theory and practical applications of solvent effects and chemical reactions. The importance of getting a good understanding of surrounding media effects on chemical reacting system is difficult to overestimate. Applications go from condensed phase chemistry, biochemical reactions in vitro to biological systems in vivo. Catalysis is a phenomenon produced by a particular system interacting with the reacting subsystem. The result may be an increment of the chemical rate or...

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Probes of Molecular Dynamics describes the theoretical basis and experimental techniques that make modern NMR spectroscopy a powerful and flexible tool for probing molecular dynamics in chemical, physical, and biochemical systems. Individual chapters, written by leaders in the development and application of NMR from around the world, treat systems that range from synthetic polymers, liquid crystals, and catalysts to proteins and oligonucleotides and techniques that include deuterium NMR, magic angle spinning, multidimensional spectroscopy, and...

Molecular Theory of Solvation presents the recent progress in the statistical mechanics of molecular liquids applied to the most intriguing problems in chemistry today, including chemical reactions, conformational stability of biomolecules, ion hydration, and electrode-solution interface. The continuum model of "solvation" has played a dominant role in describing chemical processes in solution during the last century. This book discards and replaces it completely with molecular theory taking proper account of chemical specificity of solvent.

The main machinery...

The so-called reaction path (RP) with respect to the potential energy or the Gibbs energy ("free enthalpy") is one of the most fundamental concepts in chemistry. It significantly helps to display and visualize the results of the complex microscopic processes forming a chemical reaction. This concept is an implicit component of conventional transition state theory (TST). The model of the reaction path and the TST form a qualitative framework which provides chemists with a better understanding of chemical reactions and stirs their imagination. However, an exact calculation of the RP and its...

Diapause is an event of great ecological significance in the lives of a wide range of invertebrates. The underlying physiological and genetic mechanisms pose many intriguing questions and have important evolutionary implications. Some of the most dramatic examples of diapause are provided by crustaceans. Most branchiopods produce resting eggs that can withstand intense desiccation and extremes of temperature and pressure far beyond those to which they are ever subjected in nature. Furthermore they can remain in a dry condition, displaying no measurable metabolism, for many years. Such...

A major focus of the philosophy of medicine and, in general, of the philosophy of science has been the interplay of facts and values. Nowhere is an evaluation of this interplay more important than in the ethics of diagnosis. Traditionally, diagnosis has been understood as an epistemological activity which is concerned with facts and excludes the intrusion of values. The essays in this volume challenge this assumption. Questions of knowledge in diagnosis are intimately related to the concerns with intervention that characterize the applied science of medicine. Broad social and individual...

Embodiment, Morality and Medicine deals with the relevance of embodiment' to bioethics, considering both the historical development and contemporary perspectives on the mind--body relation. The emphasis of all authors is on the importance of the body in defining personal identity as well as on the role of social context in shaping experience of the body. Among the perspectives considered are Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist, and African-American. Feminist concerns are important throughout.

Historically, technological developments that have made use of the acidity/basicity of solids have often preceded an understanding of the phenomena involved. This, of course, is very expensive, and a far less efficient process than research based on a fundamental understanding of the science. For the last 50 years, therefore, a vast amount of research has been devoted to the subject: the rewards, in terms of technological advantage, were seen to be high.