Originally posted by corp1131
That arcticle was pretty deep, went quite a way further than my understanding in both biology and physics at the same time! As you say though, it looks like a bit of a guess at present, and some fleshing out (and possibly simplification for the masses!) may aid its cause. I completely agree with you on the whole "why does hydrazine act differently to a ro ...[text shortened]... s, is merely a subset of inorganic chemistry which, quite a lot of the time is a study of rocks!
and more support for ATY here
Schrodinger's equation for molecular systems can only be solved approximately. The approximation methods can be categorized as either ab initio or semiempirical. Semiempirical methods use parameters that compensate for neglecting some of the time consuming mathematical terms in Schrodinger's equation, whereas ab initio methods include all such terms. The parameters used by semiempirical methods can be derived from experimental measurements or by performing ab initio calculations on model systems. The differences between these methods are described in more detail in the next section. Their practical differences are listed below:
Ab initio
Limited to tens of atoms and best performed using a supercomputer.
Can be applied to organics, organo-metallics, and molecular fragments (e.g. catalytic components of an enzyme).
Vacuum or implicit solvent environment.
Can be used to study ground, transition, and excited states (certain methods).
Specific implementations include: GAMESS and GAUSSIAN.
Semiempirical
Limited to hundreds of atoms.
Can be applied to organics, organo-metallics, and small oligomers (peptide, nucleotide, saccharide).
Can be used to study ground, transition, and excited states (certain methods).
Specific implementations include: AMPAC, MOPAC, and ZINDO.
Quantum mechanics methods are based on the following principles:
Nuclei and electrons are distinguished from each other.
Electron-electron (usually averaged) and electron-nuclear interactions are explicit.
Interactions are governed by nuclear and electron charges (i.e. potential energy) and electron motions.
Interactions determine the spatial distribution of nuclei and electrons and their energies.
http://cmm.info.nih.gov/modeling/guide_documents/quantum_mechanics_document.html
I needed a bottle of asprin to read this site.