A simplified representation of biochemical principles based on the dynamics of chemical flow systems.

Abstract

This work suggests that the amount of information included in biochemistry texts is artificially increased, because the knowledge presented contains tautologies that are obscured by the use of inappropriate methods of representation. The work then proposes alternative methods of representation for describing biochemical systems that are based on the dynamics of an idealized chemical open-flow system. They would clarify the fact, in an open system, the concentrations of the reactants and reaction products depend not only on the equilibrium constants but on the absolute velocities of the reactions as well. Similar rules apply to phenomena involving other processes, such as diffusion of ions. Biochemical systems are considered as a set of chemical flow systems in which individual processes have the potential for interactions if their end products influence the rate of other processes. These interactions are used to explain how biochemical systems maintain themselves in states of high order. By use of these formulations, some of the logical sequences by which biochemical principles can be deduced from the principles of chemistry can be given simple and illustrative expression.