For this summer school in Athens, Greece, August 22-21, 1978, I took as my objective the presentation of a timely representative account of the application of infrared and Raman spectro­ scopy to biological molecules. A summer school is made up of a number of things -ideas, people, organization international collaboration and sponsorship. The exchange of ideas the student-lecturer interaction in the discussion periods and the tutorials satisfy the urgent need of all the participants to meet and discuss topics of current scientific interest. It seems therefore appropriate to publish this summer school proceedings in order to make it a lasting event and that appreciation be shown to those people and institutions that made it all possible. The summer school was held under the auspices of the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sciences under the sponsorship of the NATO Scientific Affairs Division in Brussels. In addition, support was provided by the National Hellenic Research Foundation and the Ministry of Culture and Sciences for several social and scientific functions.

Inhalt

and Historical Survey.- to the Raman Spectroscopy of Biological Molecules.- Historical Survey of the Infrared and Raman Spectroscopic Study of Biological Molecules.- Classical Theory of Molecular Vibrations.- Correlation of Group Frequencies with Molecular Conformation.- Vibrational Spectra of Solids.- Group Frequencies and the Chemical Bond.- Applications.- Vibrations of Chain Molecules.- Vibrational Spectroscopy of Polypeptides and Proteins.- Vibrational Spectroscopy of Carbohydrates.- Conformational Analysis of Snake Toxins by Laser Raman Spectroscopy.- The Raman Spectroscopy of Nucleic Acids.- Estimation of the Distortion of the Geometry of Nucleic-Acid Bases in the Excited Electronic State from the Ultra-Violet Resonance Raman Enhancement of Certain Normal Modes.- 15N Isotope Effects on the Raman Spectra of 5'UMP and 5'UMP-d3.- Interaction of Metal Ions with Nucleic Acids.- Vibrational Spectroscopy of Metal Nucleic Acid Systems.- Interaction of Metal Ions with Peptides in Aqueous Medium as Studied by Infrared and Raman Spectroscopy.- Applications of Raman Spectroscopy to Biomembrane Structure.- Resonance Raman Spectra of Model Metallo Porphins.- Resonance Raman Spectroscopy of Heme Proteins.- Hydrogen Bonded Systems.- Vibrational Spectroscopy of Hydrogen Bonded Systems.- Overtones and Combination Tones: Application to the Study of Molecular Associations.- Infrared Studies on Anesthetic Compounds.- Experimental Techniques.- Experimental Techniques of Resonance Raman Spectroscopy Applied to Biological Molecules.- Techniques of Raman Spectroscopy.