This is a book about the physical processes in reacting complex molecules, particularly biomolecules. In the past decade scientists from different fields such as medicine, biology, chemistry and physics have collected a huge amount of data about the structure, dynamics and functioning of biomolecules. Great progress has been achieved in exploring the structure of complex molecules. However, there is still a lack of understanding of the dynamics and functioning of biological macromolecules. In particular this refers to enzymes, which are the basic molecular machines working in living systems. This book contributes to the exploration of the physical mechanisms of these processes, focusing on critical aspects such as the role of nonlinear excitations and of stochastic effects. An extensive range of original results has been obtained in the last few years by the authors, and these results are presented together with a comprehensive survey of the state of the art in the field.
Professor Werner Ebeling studied physics at the University of Rostock and the Moscow State University. He got his PhD and habilitation at the Rostock University. Since 1979 he is professor of theoretical physics at the Humboldt University Berlin. In 2001 he took retirement from university teaching at Humboldt to concentrate on research in particular in the Collaborative Research Center "Nonlinear Complex Processes" in Berlin. Further he is still active as guest and honorary professor of several Russian universities. Dr Ebeling is associate editor of journals such as e.g. BioSystems, Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Contributions to Plasma Physics and member of several editorial boards. He is the author of more than two hundred research papers and a dozen monographs in the field of statistical physics, nonlinear dynamics and theory of selforganization.
Professor Lutz Schimansky-Geier attain fellowships from 1981-1982 with the Moscow Sate University; and in 1991 with the University of Augsburg. He is also a Speaker of the Collaborative Research Center "Nonlinear Complex Processes" (Sfb 555). In the year 2000 he became the Editor of "Fluctuation and Noise Letters" and in 2001 he became Associated Member of the Center of Neurodynamics, University of Missouri at St Louis.
Yuri M Romanovsky is a Full Professor in the Department of Physics of the Moscow State University and a Head of Laboratory of Biophotonics and Mathematical Biophysics. He received his Dr Sci. degree in physics from Moscow State University (1976). He is a coauthor of seven monographs in Mathematical Biophysics and Nonlinear Dynamics, published in Russian, English, German and Polish. He has been investigating the biophysics of cell motility, biopotentials of plants and molecular dynamics by the methods of optical diagnostics and mathematical modelling for the last 30 years. For many years he is working together with Profs L Shimansky-Geier and W Ebeling (Humboldt University, Berlin).
