246 BIOCHEMISTRY OF BACTERIAL LUMINESCENCE 



pool their potential energy so that the kinetic energy = (hv — AF ) 

 picked up from the heat reservoir is negligible. 



You may find the papers of Audubert (1936, 1937) and of Evans, 

 Eyring, and Kincaid (1938) interesting in this connection. 



References 



Audubert, R. 1936. Emission de rayonnement par les reactions chimiques. 



/. Chim. Phys., 33, 507-25. 

 Audubert, R. 1937. Etude de I'emission de rayonnement ultra-violette au 



cours de la decomposition lente des azotures. /. Chim. Phys., 34, 405—15. 

 Evans, M. G., H. Eyring, and J. F. Kincaid. 1938. Nonadiabatic reactions. 



Chemiluminescence. /. Chem. Phys., 6, 349-58. 

 Johnson, F. H., H. Eyring, and M. J. Polissar. 1954. The Kinetic Basis of 



Molecular Biology. John Wiley & Sons, New York. 



On Light Energy versus Free Energy Changes in Bioluminescence 



Dr. Strehler: In attempting to evaluate the plausibility of any overall 

 chemical reaction as a source of the energy in a quantum emitted in 

 a coupled luminescent reaction, the question arises: Must the AF 

 liberated per mole of the proposed reaction be greater than the energy 

 per einstein of the emitted light? If the answer is affirmative, only 

 those reactions furnishing more energy than that in the light need be 

 considered as possible sources of energy for bioluminescent processes. 

 If, on the other hand, the answer is negative, then even reactions 

 somewhat less energetic than the light emitted cannot be ruled out as 

 possibilities. A case in point is the oxidation of peroxide by peroxide 

 which liberates about 54 kcal during the dismutation of 2 moles of 

 H2O2 and thus might be considered as a source of energy for bacterial 

 or riboflavin chemiluminescence (max. energy/einstein = 60 kcal). 



The following discussion is a qualitative series of arguments and 

 is limited by the author's training and experience. A quantitative 

 treatment of the thermodynamic and kinetic aspects of this problem 

 has kindly been made by Dr. Joseph Mayer in the following portion 

 of this discussion. 



Premises 



( 1 ) The chief premise is simply that thermal energy may contribute 



