University of California,
Davis
Physics
Department
Condensed
Matter Seminar
**********************************
Biological antifreezes
protect cold-water organisms from freezing. An example is the
antifreeze
proteins (AFP's) that attach to the surface of ice crystals and arrest
growth
of ice in the blood of many cold-water fish. The mechanism for growth
arrest
has not been heretofore understood in a quantitative way. We present a
complete
theory based on a kinetic model. We use the `stones on a pillow'
picture of C.
Knight et. al. Our theory of the suppression of the freezing point as a
function of the concentration of the AFP is quantitatively accurate. It
gives a
correct description of the dependence of the freezing point suppression
on the
geometry of the protein, and might lead to advances in design of
synthetic
AFP's.
(Special Seminar Day)