Table of contents

A general review of the more physical aspects of photosynthesis is given. The subject is developed with reference to a time scale covering the various steps between photon capture and the appearance of the first stabilised chemical products. Details of the energy and electron transfer processes are considered and there is discussion of both the efficiency and mechanism for energy conversion.

The role of electron spin resonance in the study of both natural and synthetic diamond is reviewed. A brief survey of the physical significance of the constants in the spin Hamiltonian, as well as experimental technique, is given. The various nitrogen centres are discussed treating exchange-interaction, Jahn-Teller and relaxation effects associated with these centres. The spin Hamiltonian parameters of these centres are tabled and the results are discussed within the framework of the defect molecule approach. In conclusion, the correlation between optical effects and the ESR measurements in the case of four defect centres are discussed in some detail as this seems to be a powerful method of testing the various models suggested for the observed defects.

The authors review the evidence for continental drift, the mechanism by which it occurs, and the visible effects of the process.

Black holes appear to conform to a very straightforward generalisation of standard laboratory thermodynamics. This generalised theory is examined in detail, and some concrete results are presented. The thermodynamic connection is based on Hawking's application of quantum theory to black holes, and the quantum aspects are described in detail from several standpoints, both heuristic and otherwise. The precise mechanism by which the black hole produces thermal radiation, its nature and origin, and the energetics of back-reaction on the hole are reviewed. The thermal states of quantum holes are also treated using the theory of thermal Green functions, and the entropy of the hole is shown to be related to the loss of information about the quantum states hidden behind the event horizon. Some related topics such as accelerated mirrors and observers in Minkowski space, super-radiance from rotating holes and the thermodynamics of general self-gravitating systems are also briefly discussed.