Stefan Joest wrote:
> You will find it in most books about chemistry and medicine. I
> thought it to be common knowledge (excuse me). An indicator of the
> correctness of this statement might be, that fever over 104F is
> deadly: your body denaturates.

According to Edward Howell in his book Enzyme Nutrition, "official
chemistry will tell you that 160 F denatures the protein in enzymes." My
book on The Structure and Function of Enzymes (Sidney Bernhard)has a
graph which shows that the hydrogen bonds break causing structural
changes acompanying protein denaturation primarily in the range 60-70 C.
This is the region of abrupt change, but there is actually some slight
change beginning below 40 C. It is one of those S curves. It's not an all
or nothing change at any specific temp.

My best, Ellie