From owner-metabolic-reg@net.bio.net Thu Jan 06 22:00:00 1994
Path: biosci!daresbury!not-for-mail
From: SCHLOSSER@ciit.org
Newsgroups: bionet.metabolic-reg
Subject: re: photosynthesis, exo or endo
Date: 7 Jan 1994 14:03:27 -0000
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Sender: daemon@mserv1.dl.ac.uk
Distribution: bionet
Message-ID: <2gjq3f$21o@mserv1.dl.ac.uk>
Original-To: btk-mca@dl.ac.uk

In <9401061749.AA19905@net.bio.net>
mroussel@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca (Marc Roussel) writes:

>      Ever since this discussion started, I've been trying to decide why
> we should care whether or not photosynthesis removes heat from its
> surroundings.  Heat isn't a state function, so it seems a little odd to
> worry about it; change the conditions of the reaction (but not the
> starting and finishing states), and the amount of heat taken in or given
> out changes.  Perhaps someone can then tell me why we should care about
> the form of energy involved in photosynthesis.  We can all agree that
> photosynthesis is endoergic (Delta U > 0, where U is the internal energy).
> Does anything else really matter?
> 
> 				Marc R. Roussel
>                                 mroussel@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca

I assumed that the question was to what extent the process heats or cools
the plant involved (in which case, one should not count the photons, since
absorbing them does not cool the plant).  This might be important for plants
living at very high or low temperatures.  Who started this?

Paul
schlosser@beta.ciit.org


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