Statistical mechanics articles within Nature Chemistry

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  • Article |

    The molecular driving forces underlying the liquid–liquid phase separation (LLPS) of RNA are not well understood. Now simulations show that low-complexity RNA sequences undergo LLPS at high RNA concentrations, driven by the formation of Watson–Crick base pairs between distinct RNA polymers. LLPS occurs by merger of small droplets into larger ones and RNA chains in the large droplets exhibit reptation dynamics.

    • Hung T. Nguyen
    • , Naoto Hori
    •  & D. Thirumalai

  • Article |

    Information is physical, but the flow between information, energy and mechanics in chemical systems remains largely unexplored. Now, an autonomous molecular motor has been analysed with information thermodynamics, which relates information to other thermodynamic parameters. This treatment provides a general thermodynamic understanding of molecular motors, with practical implications for machine design.

    • Shuntaro Amano
    • , Massimiliano Esposito
    •  & Benjamin M. W. Roberts

  • Article |

    The structure and dynamics of hydrogen bonds in ion hydration shells are not yet fully understood, however, small ion–dihydrate molecular complexes represent ideal model systems with which to investigate the interplay between ion–water and water–water interactions. Now, state-of-the-art quantum dynamics simulations have provided evidence for tunnelling in hydrogen-bond rearrangements in the iodide–dihydrate complex.

    • Pushp Bajaj
    • , Jeremy O. Richardson
    •  & Francesco Paesani

  • Perspective |

    Enzyme-catalysed reactions can involve significant quantum tunnelling and show kinetic isotope effects with complex temperature dependences. In this Perspective, reaction dynamics and enzyme catalysis are linked to transition-state-theory frameworks. It is shown that a multi-state model using standard transition-state theory can account for complex experimental data without invoking a role for enzyme dynamics.

    • David R. Glowacki
    • , Jeremy N. Harvey
    •  & Adrian J. Mulholland

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