THE WATERS OF LIFE

Water serves as a critical solvent for a remarkable array of molecules ; in particular it profoundly influences the structure and activity of proteins, and their molecular interactions. Our ability to understand biological processes and to develop innovative applications for biote chnology depend in large part on understanding the biophysics of prote ins in their solvated environment. The main difficulty in understandin g solvation phenomena arises from the effects of electrostatics in com plex biomolecular systems. In this paper we survey and critique the fu ndamental concepts and methodologies in evaluating electrostatic contr ibutions to solvation. (C) 1997 The Franklin Institute. Published by E lsevier Science Ltd.