The large electrostatic repulsion arising from the negatively charged backbone of RNA molecules presents a large barrier to folding. Solution counterions assist in the folding process by screening this electrostatic repulsion. While early research interpreted the effect of these counterions in terms of an empirical ligand-binding model, theories based on physical models have supplanted them and...

The formation of the chemical products produced in an atmospheric glow discharge fed by a N2-CH4 gas mixture has been studied using Fourier Transform InfraRed (FTIR) and Optical Emission Spectrometry (OES). The measurements were carried out in a flowing regime at ambient temperature and pressure with CH4 concentrations ranging from 0.5% to 2%. In the recorded emission spectra the lines of the s...

The Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) narrows in response to global warming in both observations and climate models. However, a physical understanding of this narrowing is lacking. Here we show that the narrowing of the ITCZ in simulations of future climate is related to changes in the moist static energy (MSE) budget. MSE advection by the mean circulation and MSE divergence by transient ed...

Past and recent observations indicate the presence of lightning at altitudes in excess of 30 kin. The phenomenon is manifested as a high altitude optical flash, correlated with the presence of giant thunderstorms in the atmosphere below. This letter presents the first physical model of the process. The model is based on low frequency RF breakdown of the upper atmosphere, ignited by the upward p...

An intense flux of ions and electrons from the jovian magnetosphere both alters and erodes Europa’s surface, producing a tenuous atmosphere. This chapter discusses the physical processes that create and remove the atmosphere, such as ion erosion (sputtering), radiation-induced chemical alteration of the surface (radiolysis), and atmospheric loss processes such as ionization and pickup. Special ...

This work is intended as a review of gas exchange processes between the atmosphere and the terrestrial vegetation, which have been known for more than two centuries since the discovery of photosynthesis. The physical and biological mechanisms of exchange of carbon dioxide, water vapour, volatile organic compounds emitted by plants and air pollutants taken up by them, is critically reviewed. The...

The physical processes that establish the cave temperature are briefly discussed, showing that cave temperature is generally strictly connected with the external climate. The Global Climatic changes can then influence also the underground climate. It is shown that the mountain thermal inertia causes a delay between the two climates and then a thermal unbalance between the cave and the atmospher...

We present a synthesis of physical effects influencing the observed lightcurve of an extrasolar giant planet (EGP) transiting its host star. The synthesis includes a treatment of Rayleigh scattering, cloud scattering, refraction, and molecular absorption of starlight in the EGP atmosphere. Of these effects, molecular absorption dominates in determining the transit-derived radius R, for planetar...

A fundamental problem that agro-environmental sciences have to face today is the lack of interdisciplinary linkages between the various disciplines dealing with agriculture and environment and the physics of the “soil medium” organization, which is the object of study of the pedology. Currently, the soil medium is far from being considered as the organized physical medium providing the physical...