We review the remarkable relationship between the laws of black hole mechanics and the ordinary laws of thermodynamics. It is emphasized that – in analogy with the laws of thermodynamics – the validity the laws of black hole mechanics does not appear to depend upon the details of the underlying dynamical theory (i.e., upon the particular field equations of general relativity). It also is emphas...

The enthalpies of reaction for the formation of uranyl(vi) hydroxide {[(UO2)2(OH)2](2+), [(UO2)3(OH)4](2+), [(UO2)3(OH)5](+), [(UO2)3(OH)6](aq), [(UO2)3(OH)7](-), [(UO2)3(OH)8](2-), [(UO2)(OH)3](-), [(UO2)(OH)4](2-)} and peroxide complexes {[UO2(O2)(OH)](-) and [(UO2)2(O2)2(OH)](-)} have been determined from calorimetric titrations at 25 °C in a 0.100 M tetramethyl ammonium nitrate ionic medium...

The existing thermodynamics of the cosmological horizon in de Sitter spacetime is established in the micro-canonical ensemble, while the thermodynamics of black hole horizons is established in the canonical ensemble. Generally in the ordinary thermodynamics and statistical mechanics, both of the micro-canonical and canonical ensembles yield the same equation of state for any thermodynamic syste...

It is shown that the two-level correlation function R(s, s′) in the invariant random matrix ensembles (RME) with soft confinement exhibits a ”ghost peak” at s ≈ −s′. This lifts the sum rule prohibition for the level number variance to have a Poisson-like term var(n) = ηn that is typical of RME with broken U(N) symmetry. Thus we conclude that the U(N) invariance is broken spontaneously in the RM...

Nuclear weapons and fuel production have left many soils and sediments contaminated with toxic levels of uranium (U). Although previous short-term experiments on microbially mediated U(VI) reduction have supported the prospect of immobilizing the toxic metal through formation of insoluble U(IV) minerals, our longer-term (17 months) laboratory study showed that microbial reduction of U can be tr...

The remarkable structural polymorphism of quadruplex-forming sequences has been a considerable impediment in the elucidation of quadruplex folds. Sequence modifications have commonly been used to perturb and purportedly select a particular form out of the ensemble of folds for nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) or X-ray crystallographic analysis. Here we report a simple chromatographic technique ...

On the validity of representing hurricanes as Carnot heat engine A. M. Makarieva, V. G. Gorshkov, and B.-L. Li Theoretical Physics Division, Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, 188300, Gatchina, St. Petersburg, Russia CAU-UCR International Center for Ecology and Sustainability, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA Received: 7 May 2008 – Accepted: 10 July 2008 – Published: 19 Sep...

The fluctuations of three-dimensional molecular conformations of a molecule in different environments play critical roles in many important chemical and biological processes. X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) methods are routinely applied to monitor the molecular conformations in condensed phases. However, some special requirements of the methods have preve...

Respiratory complexes are encoded by two genomes (mitochondrial DNA [mtDNA] and nuclear DNA [nDNA]). Although the importance of intergenomic coadaptation is acknowledged, the forces and constraints shaping such coevolution are largely unknown. Previous works using cytochrome c oxidase (COX) as a model enzyme have led to the so-called "optimizing interaction" hypothesis. According to this view, ...

We have studied the influence of a magnetic field on the thermodynamic properties of Ca2−xSrxRuO4 in the intermediate metallic region with tilt and rotational distortions (0.2 ≤ x ≤ 0.5). We find strong and anisotropic thermal expansion anomalies at low temperatures, which are suppressed and even reversed by a magnetic field. The metamagnetic transition of Ca1.8Sr0.2RuO4 is accompanied by a lar...