THE FREE ENERGY OF BIOLOGICAL PROCESSES.* 

 Preliminary Paper. 



By GEORGE A. LINHART. 



{From the Division of Soil Chemistry and Bacteriology, College of Agriculture, 

 University of California, Berkeley.) 



(Received for publication, October 5, 1919.) 



Any process in nature is accompanied by a transfer of energy. 

 Part of this energy can be used for doing useful work; part of it is 

 dissipated or rendered latent. Moreover, in the burning of a sub- 

 stance, such as coal, only a small percentage of the available energy 

 is at present utilized; the bulk of it is lost in the form of heat. This 

 immense loss of energy is no doubt due to the clumsiness of our tech- 

 nique and to the imperfection of the work engines now in common 

 use. This leads us to inquire whether similar processes in living 

 organisms are more efficient. An investigation has therefore been 

 undertaken to find the ratio of the energy supplied and the maximvmi 

 work obtainable in life processes. As a suitable subject for this 

 purpose, it was decided to study the fixation of nitrogen through the 

 agency of microorganisms, such as Azotohacter. 



Every biological process presents three problems for solution: 

 first, the transfer of energy, which depends solely on the initial and 

 final states of the system; second, the mechanism of the reactions 

 involved; and, third, the rates of these reactions. 



Up to the present time, biologists and agriculturists have been 

 interested chiefly in the mechanisms and the rates of life processes. 

 However, from this it must not be inferred that they have under- 

 estimated the importance of the study of energy relations in life 

 processes. Such a study requires a thorough knowledge of general 

 chemistry (organic and inorganic), and of thermodynamics and the 

 appKcation of its principles to chemical processes. In this day of 



* This investigation is being conducted under the direction of Dr. Charles B. 

 Lipman and with the cooperation of Dr. A. R. Davis of this laboratory. 



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