Insight into the water oxidizing cluster in Photosystem II (SCS )

The combination of high-level spectroscopy (EPR, MCD, various X-ray techniques, resonance-Raman, Mößbauer etc) and high-level quantum chemistry offer unique opportunities for disentangling complex reaction mechanisms. Using spectroscopic observables as a means to gauge theoretical calculations is a powerful means to implement the important concept of falsification. As a theoretician, one no longer has to rely on small energy differences. As an experimentalist one profits from the ability to correctly interpret complex spectra. The concepts are illustrated by an in.depth study one of the most important chemical reactions: the oxidation of water by the oxygen evolving complex of photosystem II