Fill in the gaps with the following words. metabolic / transduction / assimilate / efficiency / recent / subsequent / splits / reversal

metabolic / transduction / assimilate / efficiency / recent / subsequent / splits / reversal

1. All living things ______________ energy and use it to grow, a process called metabolism.

2. When one region produces an action potential and undergoes a ______________ of polarity, it serves as a depolarization stimulus for the next region of the axon.

3. Once a seed coat forms, most of the embryo’s ______________ activities cease.

4. The ______________ of oxidative respiration at harvesting energy establishes a natural limit on the maximum length of food chains.

5. Mendel went on to examine how the plants passed traits on to ______________ generations.

6. The protein component initiates a signal ______________ leading to a particular tropism.

7. A wealth of ______________ evidence suggests that the two daughter chromosomes are actively partitioned during this process.

8. The metamorphosis of a Drosophila larva into a pupa and then into adult fly takes about four days, after which the pupal shell ______________ and the fly emerges.

Translate into Russian

1. By avoiding carbon nitrogen and iron deficiencies and ensuring maximum efficiency of light utilization by exposing the alga in layers of only 6 mm thickness, Myers et al. succeeded in obtaining culture of Chlorella pyrenoidosa with the extraordinarily high density of 54.9 gm dry weight of algal material per liter.

2. The extremely slowly utilized sugars, such as lactose, may owe their value to their use being unfavorable to pyruvate accumulation.

3. Katagiri failed to obtain monoconidial suspensions by the use of a dilution method. On the other hand, the author succeeded in obtaining a strain temporarily productive of better yields.

4. By this means it has been shown that the DNA of the nucleus is passed on to daughter cells without being broken down and resynthesized.

5. The function of the Golgi Complex is still largely a mystery though it has been credited with having a role in the secretion of giant molecules by the animal cell.

6. This colloidal material has the unusual property of being capable both of viscous flow like a liquid and of elastic deformation like a solid.

7. The history of science is often pictured as one-way process of constantly widening and deepening insight into the unity of nature.

8. DNA must be capable both of duplicating itself and of providing the necessary information for protein synthesis.

9. In June 1962 Wilkins and his collaborators reported that they had succeeded in crystallizing sodium salts of transfer.

10. The key to understanding how proteins behave is to know in detail how they are put together.

11. Proteins are labile compounds capable of losing their specific biological properties under a variety of relatively mild chemical and physical treatment.

12. They discovered that by subjecting each amino group along the polypeptide to a small rotation, a helix was generated that had the property of forming hydrogen bonds across the turns of the helix.

13. Absolute group specificity implies that the enzyme is capable of acting on given organic group only.

14. The author shall largely refrain from predicting future lines of progress in the swiftly growing field of induced division synchrony.

15. I will finish this chapter by telling why these points are so important, to me.

16. There are reasons to believe that there are organic substances which play an important role in biology and are capable of giving off one electron only.

17. Another crude way of checking consists of measuring the absorption spectra.

18. The reader may think that the author has dropped into the common error of overemphasizing the importance of a factor which took his fancy.

19. There is no difficulty in making theories of how such a current could produce contraction.

20. There is no reason for not putting ATP (adenosine triphospate) into the electron spin resonance machine.

21. A complete determination of viral structure would involve knowing the amino acid sequence in each of its proteins, the way they are folded, and the forces that hold the protein elements together. So far, we are a long way from reaching these goals, hut in the case of several viruses, there seems to be some hope of doing so.

UNIT 11 Thermodynamic Probability and Entropy

In 1854, Rudolf J. E. Clausius introduced the entropy (S) as a parameter of phenomenological thermodynamics, and defined it as the heat, added to a system in a reversible way in relation to the temperature. Later, in 1894, Ludwig Boltzmann used this parameter in the framework of statistical thermodynamics. In this context, entropy and the second principle of thermodynamics become more imaginable. Entropy appears as a kind of measure of disorder, or as a degree of random distribution, i.e. of missing order. The correlation between order and probability and, as will be explained later -information - is of great importance for the understanding of the principles of biological organization.

Let us start with the assumption that entropy is a measure of randomization of a given distribution. We will consider a system of maximal entropy as a system in maximal disorder. Furthermore, let us demand that the entropy be an extensive parameter. Therefore, like volume, or mass, but in contrast for example to temperature or density, the entropies S₁ and S₂ of two systems can be added, if these systems come together: S₁ + S₂ = S.

How can we now define a parameter which indicates the degree of randomization or, on the contrary, the degree of order? What does order of organization mean? Of course, our daily experience shows that an ordered system spontaneously transforms into a disordered one, but not vice versa. This, actually, is the consequence of the second principle of thermodynamics.

Let us consider a very simple structure, just the distribution of four distinguishable spheres in two compartments of a box. Let each of these spheres, independently of the three others, fall just by chance into one or the other compartment of the box. All of the 11 possibilities of the distribution, therefore, have the same degree of probability, because the probability of each sphere individually falling into compartment 1 or into compartment 2 is equal. Summarizing the patterns of distribution, there is only one way to realize the distributions 0:4 and 4:0. In contrast, there are four ways to realize the distribution 3:1 and 1:3, and, finally, six ways for equal distribution: 2:2.

Let us now ignore the fact that the spheres are distinguishable. Let us simply ask: how large is the probability that just by stochastic distributions one of the relations 4:0, 3:1, 2:2, 1:3, or 0:4 occurs? Apparently, the probability of any kind of distribution will be larger if it can be realized in a larger number of ways. The distribution mode 2:2, for example, is six times more likely than the distribution 4:0, or 0:4. The number of ways which lead to the realization of a definite situation, in fact, seems to be a measure of the probability of the occurrence of it.

Define the following words using a dictionary

Thermodynamics, a pattern, apparent, randomization, distinguishable, occurrence

Complete the sentences

1. Entropy appears as…

2. The correlation between order and probability…

3. Our daily experience shows that an ordered system…

4. Summarizing the patterns of distribution,…

5. Apparently, the probability of any kind of distribution…

6. The number of ways which lead to the realization of a definite situation…