HHMI Bridge To Science Excelence
Physics
 
The Hughes program was made up of two subjects, biology and PHYSICS.
This page is the physics portion of HHMI website. Physics is a very
challenging part of the three week class. Our Physics professor,
John Howell, challenged us throughout our first three weeks at Earlham
College.
Text: Physics: Principles with Applications (Douglas C. Giancoli)
Topics: The Physical Basis of F0F1 Proteomics: Gas Laws, Electro-statics,
Mass Spectroscopy, X-Ray Diffraction, Boltzmann Distribution, Photoelectric
Effect
![Entangled photons [Type-II downconversion], University of Innsbruck [M. Reck & P. G. Kwiat]](smallphotons.jpg)
Goals of the physics page:
To inform both the Earlham College community, and the general public,
as to the content and relevance/sociocultural implications of the
physics portion of the HHMI Bridge to Science Excellence Program
2003.
To advertise the HHMI Bridge program to future participants.
The topic of the course
this year is ATP Synthase inside the Mitochondria.
This is a very quick description
of how ATP synthase works (if more information is needed, click
on the HHMI Biology page.)
ATP is the what our cells use to do the processes
that they need to do. ATP is made inside the Mitochondria. Every
cell has a bunch of them inside the cell itself. The Mitochondria
take in glucose and thru many processes (probably explained in the
Biology part) is used to move protons into a place where they can
be pumped. A motor called F0F1 (below) is used to pump protons thru
to low concentrations. The energy gained from this pumping is used
to turn ADP + P into ATP.
Photo Credit:
Hutcheon, M.L., Duncan, T.M., Ngai, H., and Cross, R.L. (2001)
Energy-driven subunit rotation at the interface between subunit a and the
c oligomer in the F0 sector of Escherichia coli ATP synthase. PNAS 98.
8519-8524.
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/98/15/8519
which itself was adapted from:
Duncan, T.M., Bulygin, V.V., Zhou, Y., Hutcheon, M.L., & Cross, R.L.
(1995) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 92, 10964-10968.
So what does physics have to do with it???
Actually, physics has
a lot to do with the F0F1 ATP synthase. There are a lot equations,
that I won't go into. Anyways, as F0F1 pumps protons, it moves energy
around. This means that we need potential and kinetic energy formulas.
Various other equations were used.
John A. Howell
Professor of Physics
Ph.D., M.A., B.A., Harvard University
jhowell@earlham.edu
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Physics Page Powerpoint Presentation No. 1
NORG
![A spinning protein [not F0F1] from Department of Structural Biology, Faculty of Earth and Lifesciences:
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam](GFPVolOpt2.gif)
![A Totally Random Doughnut!! [which has nothing to do with ATP synthase]](animdonut.gif)