Subject:  Re Bond breaking (fwd)
Date:     Wed, 15 Jul 1998 143029 -0500 (CDT)
From:     "Roy L. Beavers" <rbeavers@llion.org>
To:       emfguru@hotmail.com
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---------- 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.
-- 
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Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.feb.se/EMF-L/EMF-L.html