Part I. The Time Scales of Nature: a Historical Survey: 1. The history of the application of physical principles; 2 Kinetics and biological problems; 3 Time scales of nature and of measurement; Part II. Some Mathematical Introductions: 4. The origins of exponential behaviour; 5. Modelling of kinetic systems; 6. Data collection, reduction and analysis; 7. Guidelines for the derivation of equations used in the text; Part III. Elementary Kinetic Equations: Ground Rules: 8. The law of mass action, rates and equilibria; 9. The evaluation of first and second order rate constants; 10. An introduction to practical steady state kinetics; 11. Steady state kinetics of reversible effectors and ionic equilibria; Part IV. Kinetic Analysis of Complex Reactions: 12. Introduction to the study of transients and reaction sequences; 13. Consecutive reactions and physiological responses; Part V. Kinetic Mechanisms of Enzyme Reactions: 14. Transient kinetics and enzyme reactions; 15. Sequential enzyme reactions in metabolism and control; 16. Kinetics of ligand dissociation and exchange between binding sites; Part VI. Chemical Relaxation Phenomena: 17. Applications of relaxation kinetics; 18. Basic equations for the analysis of chemical relaxations; 19. Chemical relaxation of ligand binding and recognition; 20. Relaxations of proton equilibria; PartVII. Factors Affecting the Rates of Chemical Reactions; 21. Introduction to the history and concepts of chemical dynamics; 22. Temperature dependence of reactions and the activation parameters; 23. Viscosity and molecular dynamics; 24. Diffusion control of reactions; 25. Some comments on the use of isotopes in kinetic investigations; Part VIII. The Role of Light in Kinetic Investigations; 26. Applications of photochemistry; 27. Luminescence and other excited states; 28. The scope of fluorescence life time studies; 29. Photolabile (caged) compounds for the initiation of reactions; References; Index.