One of the most obvious and fundamental properties of living things is their ability to utilize the potential energy in their environment for their own ends. It is not surprising therefore that the mechanism of this biotransformation of energy-bioenergetics-has long exercised the minds of the leading scientists of their day-from Lavoisier's recognition that respiration is fundamentally the same as combustion, Priestley's discovery of photosynthesis, and Spallan zani's thesis that respiration is an intracellular process. Until about 30 years ago, the field of bioenergetics was the center of...