Marye Anne Fox Department of Chemistry University of Texas Austin

The light-absorbing antenna complex is a trimer of subunits containing seven bacteriochlorophyll-a molecules. Persistent non-photochemical hole burning experiments show that more than seven exciton levels exist, suggesting a state assignment invoking interaction between chlorophylls in different subunits. The observed decay time is compared to those observed in accessory pigments of bacterial reaction centers.

S.G. Johnson, G.J. Small, "Excited-state structure and energy-transfer dynamics of the bacteriochlorophyll-a antenna complex from Prosthecochloris-aestuarii," Journal of Physical Chemistry, 95, 471-80, 10 January 1991. (Ames Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy, Ames, Iowa; Iowa State University, Ames)

One of the classic problems in synthetic organic chemistry has finally been written for publication.

R.B. Woodward, W.A. Ayer, J.M. Beaton, et al., "The total synthesis of chlorophyll-a," Tetrahedron, 46 (22), 7599-659, 1990. (Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.)

Carbon-carbon bond formation, the key step in many macromolecular sequences, is modeled here...

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