Reprints of papers originally published in various journals before 1990.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Section I Infrastructure: Introduction to infrastructure -- Physics and biology / Hans Frauenfelder -- Biological membranes / Britton Chance, Paul Mueller, Don De Vault and L. Powers -- Biomembrane phase transitions / John F. Nagle and Hugh L. Scott -- Influence of interatomic interactions on the structure and stability of polypeptides and proteins / H. A. Scheraga -- Theory of the phase transition between helix and random coils in polypeptide chains / B. H. Zimm and J. K. Bragg -- Density of low-energy vibrational states in a protein solution / A. S. Brill, F. G. Fiamingo, D. A. Hampton, P. D. Levin and R. Thorkildsen -- Pigment-protein interactions in the photosynthetic reaction center from Rhodopseudomonas viridis / H. Michel, O. Epp and J. Deisenhofer -- The haeoglobin molecule / M. F. Perutz -- Importance of DNA stiffness in protein-DNA binding specificity / M. E. Hogan and R. H. Austin -- Section II Cells: Introduction to cells -- Bacteria swim by rotating their flagellar filaments / H. C. Berg and R. A. Anderson -- Physics of chemoreception / H. C. Berg and E. M. Purcell -- Life at low Reynolds number / E. M. Purcell -- Magnetosome dynamics in magnetotactic bacteria / S. Ofer, I. Nowik, E. R. Bauminger, G. C. Papaefthymiou, R. B. Frankel and R. P. Blakemore -- Section III Energetics: Introduction to energetics -- Electron transfer between biological molecules by thermally activated tunnelling / J. Hopfield -- Intermolecular energy migration and fluorescence / Th. Forster -- Exciton migration and trapping in photosynthesis / Robert M. Pearlstein -- Excitation trapping and primary charge stabilization in Rhodopseudomonas viridas cells measured electrically with picosecond resolution / J. Deprez, H. W. Trissl and J. Breton -- Hemoglobin structure and respiratory transport / M. F. Perutz -- Evidence for conformational and diffusional mean square displacements in frozen aqueous solution of oxymyoglobin / H. Keller and P. G. Debrunner -- Spectral shapes of Mossbauer and incoherent neutron scattering from harmonically bound nuclei in brownian motion: applications to macromolecular systems / I. Nowik, E. R. Bauminger, S. G. Cohen and S. Ofer -- Hemoglobin S gelation and sickle cell disease / William A. Eaton and James Hofrichter -- The electrocardiogram as an example of electrostatics / Russell K. Hobbie -- Improved explanation of the electrocardiogram / Russell K. Hobbie -- Bursting, beating and chaos in an excitable membrane model / Teresa Ree Chay and John Rinzel --

Section IV Information generation and transfer: Introduction to information generation and transfer -- The electrophysics of a nerve fiber / A. C. Scott -- Neural networks and physical systems with emergent collective computational abilities / J. J. Hopfield -- The biophysics of visual photoreception / A. Lewis and L. V. Del Priore -- Resetting biological clocks / A. Winfree -- Section V Experimental techniques: Introduction to experimental techniques -- Characterization of the human auditory cortex by the neuromagnetic method / G. L. Romani, S. J. Williamson, L. Kaufman and D. Brenner -- Image formation by induced local interactions examples employing nuclear magnetic resonance / P. C. Lauterbur -- Observation of tissue metabolites using P nuclear magnetic resonance / D. I. Hoult, S. J. W. Busby, D. G. Gadian, G. K. Radda, R. E. Richards and P. J. Seeley -- Femtosecond spectroscopy of excitation energy transfer and initial charge separation in the reaction center of the photosynthetic bacterium Rhodspeudomonas viridis / J. Breton, J. L. Martin, A. Migus, A. Antonetti and A. Orszag -- Dynamics of ligand bonding to myoglobin / R. H. Austin, K. W. Beeson, L. Eisenstein, H. Frauenfelder and I. C. Gunsalus -- Ultraviolet fluorescence of the aromatic amino acids / F. W. J. Teale and G. Weber -- Spectral broadening in biomolecules / V. Srajer, K. T. Schomacker and P. M. Champion -- Platinized chloroplasts: a novel photocatalytic material / Elias Greenbaum -- Section VI Photosynthesis: Introduction to photosynthesis -- Thermodynamics of the primary reactions of photosynthesis / W. W. Parson -- Physical mechanisms in photosynthesis: past elucidations and current problems / R. K. Clayton -- Electron transfer reactions in bacterial photosynthesis: charge recombination kinetics as a structure probe / G. Feher, M. Y. Okamura and D. Kleinfeld -- Energetics of initial charge separation in bacterial photosynthesis: the triplet decay rate in very high magnetic fields / Richard A. Goldstein, Larry Takiff and Stephen G. Boxer.