The Physical Sciences Library collection focus on basic reference tools dealing with the structure and chemical aspects of proteins, nucleic acids, peptides and enzymes. We collection strongly in natural products chemistry and the chemistry of carbohydrates as they relate to research fields and organic synthesis chemistry. Physical Chemistry Research programs in physical chemistry range from biology to physics. The biological problems under investigation focus on mechanisms of protein folding, blood clotting, enzyme catalysis and regulation, the immune response, and energy transfer in photosynthesis. Those systems can be probed experimentally by fluorescence and Raman spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance, and fast-reaction techniques.
Theoretical studies permit empirical energy calculations of protein structures.
The application of lasers to the study of molecular structure and dynamics is a major area of research at Cornell. Of special interest are electronic and vibrational excitation, electron transfer in condensed media, small-molecule photodissociation, multiphoton spectroscopy, cluster dynamics, atmospheric reaction dynamics, surface chemical physics, and ultrafast timing of basic photophysical and photochemical events. On-campus national facilities for synchrotron radiation and nanofabrication provide a unique opportunity for fundamental studies in a range of exciting fields. Biophysical Chemistry Sophisticated physical and theoretical methods are applied to investigate complex biological systems on molecular and atomic levels. X-ray crystallography determines the structures of a potent series of antitumor antibiotics and immunosuppressive drugs.