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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1974 Jul;71(7):2655–2657. doi: 10.1073/pnas.71.7.2655

The Second Law of Thermodynamics in Bioenergetics

Gabor Kemeny 1
PMCID: PMC388525  PMID: 16592167

Abstract

Bioenergetic processes are viewed as processes of free energy transduction. The free energies of both local equilibrium and fluctuation states are being considered. It is shown that the exchange of thermal energy with the surrounding medium, acting as a reservoir, does not violate the second law of thermodynamics within broad limits. There is sufficient latitude for proteins to carry out their function of transduction utilizing thermal energy in the process.

Keywords: enzymes, energy transduction, activated processes

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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