Subject:  Bill Curry is right (fwd)
Date:     Wed, 15 Jul 1998 210531 -0500 (CDT)
From:     "Roy L. Beavers" <rbeavers@llion.org>
To:       emfguru@hotmail.com
--------------------------------------------------


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 19:24:58 -0500
From: Edward Maxey 
To: "Roy L. Beavers" 
Subject: Bill Curry is right

Roy L. Beavers wrote:
> 
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 11:37:02 -0600
> From: "Bill P. Curry" 
> To: "Roy L. Beavers" 
> Subject: Re: Bond breaking (fwd)
> 
> Roy,
>         With all due respect for Ed Maxey's abilities as both a physician and a
> communicator, I think he has slightly misstated the case for saying that bond
> breaking goes on all the time without satisfying the "physicist's criterion."
> While I am not a specialist in this area, I have read papers that describe the
> DNA "unzipping" as an enzyme molecule rolling down a double stranded molecule
> and breaking the bonds between the base pairs which link the two strands as it
> rolls.  This then frees each half of the DNA molecule to replicate itself from
> the abundance of amino acids present in the medium containing the DNA.  Such a
> process requires the energy of metabolism to drive it.  The enzyme that
> energizes many biological processes is adenosine triphosphate (ATP).  ATP
> stores and delivers metabolic energy by changing from its lowest quantum state
> to en excited state, as a consequence of absorption of the energy liberated by
> metabolism.  When the excited ATP molecule reaches a site where the energy can
> be used (e.g., a muscle cell, it releases the stored energy by returning to
> its lowest quantum state.  I suspect (but don't know) that a similar process
> occurs in the case of the enzyme that "unzips" DNA molecules.  For those on
> the list whose sopistication in matters of biochemistry exceeds mine (i.e.,
> almost anybody), if I have misstated the description of this process, please
> correct me and accept my apologies.
> --
> ----
> Bill P. Curry, Ph.D.          |Physics is fun.
> EMSciTek Consulting Co.       |Trying to make a living!
> 22W101 McCarron Road,         |Phone: (630) 858-9377
> Glen Ellyn, IL 60137          |Fax: same, but require prior notice
> 
>         Home page:      http://www.EMSciTek.com
>          ____________________________________________________
>         | Analysis, experiment design & software development |
>         |        for engineering and the physical sciences   |
>          ----------------------------------------------------
Hello again Roy,

Many thanks to Bill Curry for his expanded and more precise description
of how DNA is replicated.  Particularly interesting is the sentence, 
  "...I have read papers that describe the DNA "unzipping" as an enzyme
molecule 
   rolling down a double stranded molecule and breaking the bonds
between the 
   base pairs which link the two strands as it rolls."

Bill Curry shows us that it takes only an enzyme to break the bonds
between base
pairs (presumably molecules).  Such is the chemistry of life.  Beautiful
isn't it?

Cordially,

Ed



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Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.feb.se/EMF-L/EMF-L.html