Nathan Nelson

l966 M.Sc. Plant Physiology, Tel-Aviv University, Israel

l970 Ph.D. Plant Biochemistry, Tel-Aviv University, Israel

l970-l972 Postdoctoral Fellow, Biochemistry, Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY.

l972-l977 Senior Lecturer, Dept. Biology, Technion, Haifa, Israel.

l977-l980 Associate Professor, Technion, Haifa, Israel.

l978-l979 Visiting Professor, Biocenter, University of Basel.

l980-l985 Professor, Dept. Biology, Technion, Haifa, Israel.

l983-l984 Visiting Professor, Section of Biochemistry,

Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.

l985-l995 Full Member, Department of Biochemistry,

1995- 2006 Professor, Dept. Biochemistry, Tel Aviv University, Israel.

2006- Prof. Emeritus, Biochemistry, Tel Aviv University, Israel.

 

Yuval Mazor, Hila Toporik, Anna Borovikova and Nathan Nelson

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences,

Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, 69978, Israel

The opportunistic feature of life existence is epitomized by our location in the Milky Way galaxy. A search through the Milky Way identified a galactic habitable zone with a narrow span of between 25,000 and 32,000 light years from the galaxy center. The second law of thermodynamics defines the irreversible life. Life is an expression of increasing order.

 

To keep or increase order in living organisms we need: Constant flow of energy into the system. Get rid of entropic wastes (garbage). Photosynthesis governs the evolution of life on earth and thus it determines the composition of the atmosphere and earth surface. Oxygenic photosynthesis, that takes place in cyanobacteria algae and plants, provides most of the food and fuel on earth. The light stage of this process is driven by two photosystems.

 

Photosystem II (PSII) that oxidizes water to O2 and 4 H+ and photosystem I (PSI) which in the light provides the most negative redox potential in nature that can drive numerous reactions including CO2 assimilation and hydrogen (H2) production. The structure of most of the complexes involved in oxygenic photosynthesis was solved in several laboratories including our own. Recently, we solved the structure of plant PSI at atomic resolution revealing new structural features pertinent for the function of the most efficient nano-photochemical machine in Nature.