The Big Bang of Evolution and the Engine of Life: Climbing a Mountain

James Barber FRS, has been a leading investigator in the field of photosynthesis for over 40 years. This volume summarizes his contributions, ending with his most important work on how plants make oxygen, a molecule that is essential to our life on our planet. His contributions over the years has taken a zigzag course dependent on many factors which university based scientists have to deal with including maintaining continuity of effort. Each step in the journey is moulded by the knowledge current at time, slowly progressing to his final goal, obtaining the high resolution of structure of the oxygen evolving enzyme and thus provide a blue-print to construct a technology to produce renewable carbon free energy for the future survival of organised human society on our planet. A selection of his papers are used to provide the stepping stones for his journey which stretch over almost 50 years. It is a story of what seemed impossible becoming possible and an inspiration to young scientists just starting their careers.

Contents:

• Ion Transport in Unicellular Algae in Relation to Photosynthesis
• Electrical Properties of Chloroplast Thylakoid Membranes Measured by Salt-Induced Stimulation of Delayed Chlorophyll Fluorescence from Photosystem II
• Ion Regulation in Intact Chloroplasts in Response to Proton Pumping Across Thylakoid Membranes
• Electrical Charges on the Outer Surface of Chloroplast Thylakoid Membrane and Changes in the Adjacent Diffuse Layer as Measured by Chlorophyll Florescence
• Control of Thylakoid Membranes Organisation by Its Surface Charges
• State 1State 2 Transitions Controlled by Changes in Electrical Surface Charge by Phosphorylation of the Exposed N-terminus of a LHCII Protein
• Chlorophyll Fluorescence Lifetimes Measured with Picosecond Resolution
• An Interesting Distraction Away from PSII to Remote Sensing
• Lipids and Fluidity of Thylakoid Membranes
• Quantifying the Lateral Diffusion of LHCII and Plastoquinone Diffusion in Thylakoid Membranes
• Lipids and PSII
• Chloroplast Genes and Consequences
• The D1/D2/Cyt b559/PsbI PSII Reaction Centre Isolated
• Deletion Mutants to Explore Function of Various PSII Subunits
• Primary Reactions of PSII
• Molecular Basis of Photoinhibition
• Twenty One Years in a Botany/Biology Department: Reflections
• Structure of PSII by Electron Microscopy Including Electron Crystallography
• Structure of PSII by Electron Microscopy: Analysis of Single Particles
• A Visit to UC Berkeley and A Surprise Redirection Towards Discoveries About PSI
• Structure of PSII by X-Ray Crystallography and Implications
• Further Studies on PSII by X-ray Crystallography and the Chloride-binding Sites
• The Biosolar Laboratory Established in Italy
• The Solar Fuels Lab Established in NTU, Singapore, and Artificial Photosynthesis
• Concluding Remarks

Readership: Students and researchers in biochemistry, biological chemistry and plant biology.
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