High Pressure Chemistry And Biology

A monograph spanning solid state and materials chemistry. Aimed to prime those who have just entered the research field (must have a thorough grounding in theory); also beneficial to researchers with a focus on new directions in HPC.

The aim of the celebrated High Pressure School (HPS) is to provide a platform where both young and experienced researchers can meet and exchange their experiences in high-pressure research and techniques. Since 1996, four schools have been held in Warsaw and the tradition has developed of combining the topic of high pressure techniques with workshops which are related to the rapidly developing fields of high pressure science and technology: chemistry, biology and materials science; with particular attention being paid to nanostructured materials. Volume is indexed by Thomson Reuters CPCI-S (WoS).

This volume covers both the basic concepts and theory of bio-macromolecules under pressure and the various frontiers in high-pressure bioscience and biotechnology. A century has passed since Bridgman discovered the irreversible coagulation of egg white by applying pressure at 700 atmospheres in 1914. Today we are able to monitor pressure-dependent changes in protein structure as a reversible process even at atomic scale with modern spectroscopic techniques. We can study the fluctuating reality of protein structures as designed by nature, which is the basis for all dynamism of life on earth. We are currently facing a new era of high-pressure bioscience, in which pressure is no longer an “odd” or “foreign” variable to life, but rather an integrated part of it. Pressure is used as a crucial variable for disclosing the secrets of nature and as a powerful new tool for enhancing certain reactions in bio-macromolecules and even in living cells for our practical and industrial needs. A dramatic advancement of high-pressure bioscience both in the basic and the applied sciences is thus anticipated in near future, for which sharing the current advanced knowledge on structure and dynamics of bio-macromolecules under pressure among researchers in both fields is crucial. This book serves as a valuable resource not only for those working directly in a pressure-related field, but also for those working in many other fields of the biosciences. Particularly, the basic part of it is intended to serve as a classical text book on high-pressure bioscience to a wide audience including students and researchers in both basic and applied fields in years to come. Readers can focus on topics of immediate interest first, but may wish to go over other chapters if interest arises in a later occasion.

This monograph, which is the outcome of the ASI on High Pressure Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Materials Science, illustrates new developments in the field of high pressure science. In fact, for chemists, biochemists, and materials scientists, pressure as an experimental variable represents a tool which provides unique information about systems of materials studied. It is interesting to note how the growth of the high pressure field is also reflected in the content of the recent ASI's dealing with this field. The ASI High Pressure Chemistry held in 1977 was followed by the ASI High Pressure Chemistry and Biochemistry held in 1986, and the coverage of the present ASI also includes applications to materials science. In view of the teaching character of the ASI, it is natural that main contributions to this volume present overviews of the different subfields or applications of high pressure research. In contrast, contributed papers offer more specialized aspects of various high pressure studies. The various contributions to this volume make clear the impressive range of fundamental and applied problems that can be studied by high pressure techniques, and also point towards a major growth of high pressure science and technology in the near future. This ASI focused mainly on advances achieved in the six years since the previous ASI devoted to the high pressure field. The organization of this volume is as follows.

It was the objective of the ASI on "Advances in High Pressure Studies of Chemical and Biochemical Systems" to present the current status of such studies and to emphasize the advances achieved during the nine years since the previous ASI on "High Pressure Chemistry". These advances are partly due to the improved instrumentation enabling static and dynamic measurements at pressures several orders of magnitude higher than before, and partly due to the more general availability of high pressure equipment. This has led to a remarkable development in various areas of physics and chemistry, and especially in biochemistry. Throughout the presentation of this Advanced Study Institute the emphasis fell on the teaching character of such a summer school, and the contributions in this volume are of such a nature. Following a general introduction to modern high pressure research, a series of chapters on theoretical and experimental studies of gases, fluids and solids at high temperatures and pressures are presented with special emphasis on the physical aspects involved. Instrumentation used in such studies, viz. shock compression, NMR spectroscopy, laser scattering, x-ray and neutron scattering, and vibrational spectroscopy are treated in detail. The subsequent chapters are devoted to the application of high pressure techniques in the broad areas of organic, inorganic and biochemistry_ The formal lectures were supplemented by 29 contributed papers, for which a list of titles is included.

High pressure biology is an old, fascinating and stimulating field of research. One of the major reasons for the interest in studying high pressure is that this environmental factor also plays an important role in thermodynamics and consequently in biology. Pressure, from a biological perspective, has a bearing on all living creatures. The book pre

The aim of the celebrated High Pressure School (HPS) is to provide a platform where both young and experienced researchers can meet and exchange their experiences in high-pressure research and techniques. Since 1996, four schools have been held in Warsaw and the tradition has developed of combining the topic of high pressure techniques with workshops which are related to the rapidly developing fields of high pressure science and technology: chemistry, biology and materials science; with particular attention being paid to nanostructured materials.