Dr. Chris Jarzynski
T-13 Complex Systems
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos, NM

Wednesday, January 21, 2004
12:00 pm (CT)
144 Loomis Laboratory

Abstract

Thermodynamics teaches us how the concepts of heat and work apply to the macroscopic world of diesel engines and rubber bands. I will discuss some of the subtleties and surprises that arise when we instead apply these familiar concepts to a single, large molecule, such as a strand of RNA. These considerations ultimately reveal interesting new physics, and provide a useful set of tools for investigating the properties of biologically relevant molecules