16 



Conduction bands need not end at the confines of a protein 

 molecule. If the contact between two molecules is intimate enough, 

 the bands may fuse, thus connecting single protein molecules into 

 a common system. 



That energy can move through protein molecules iff an experi- 

 mental fact. The first example was given by the observations of 

 Bucher and Kaspers, who found that the light absorbed by the 

 protein in myoglobin caused the dissociation of the CO bound 

 by the heme. The energy of the photon absorbed by the protein 

 had to travel first through the protein molecule and then through 

 the heme to reach the CO. If there is anything to limit the value 

 of this observation, this is the possibility that the energy might 

 have traveled through the protein in the form of an acoustic wave 

 and not as electronic excitation. This possibility can be excluded 

 by Bannister's discovery that the light absorbed by the protein of 

 phycoq^anin is emitted as fluorescent light by the chromophore of 

 this chromoprotein. Equally conclusive are the experiments of 

 Shore and Pardee, who coupled fluorescent dyes to proteins and 

 found photons absorbed by the protein emitted by these dyes as 

 fluorescent light, in certain cases with an almost 100% efficiency. 

 These authors leave open the question of the mechanism of energy 

 transfer but tend to ascribe it to a resonance coupling between the 

 absorbing aromatic amino acids of the protein and the fluorescent 

 dye. In this case it would not be the protein but the electromag- 

 netic field which is responsible for the energy transmission. 



As stated at the beginning of this chapter, I will leave the ques- 

 tion open, which (if any) of these conductions plays a role in 

 biology. Possibilities are manifold. So, for instance, the columns 

 of heterocyclic purine and pyrimidine bases which, according to ^ 

 the Watson and Crick model, forms the core of DNA (and/ 

 possibly RNA), may conduct energy by electrostatic coupling in; 

 analogy to Sheibe's dyes, the moieaiies of which form columns! 

 and conduct £*. I have found earlier (1955) that certain proteins 

 have a stronger fluorescence than corresponds to the additive 



