A protein is like a coiled up messed up slinky made of hundreds of amino acids. When you join these amino acids, it's commonly called a polypeptide chain. These coil up to create a three dimensional chain. How are amino acids joined together? They are joined together by a dehydration synthesis reaction. Conversely they are broken apart by water through a hydrolysis reaction. (Where else did we hear this? During our carb talk, we learned how this is how sucrose is made from glucose and … [Read more...] about Organic Compound #3: Proteins
Physiology
Organic Compound #2: Lipids
The second class of organic molecules are lipids or fats. The most important characteristic of them is that they are insoluble in water. Think of butter or vegetable oil. The oil or fat will float to the surface of water. When we look at the chemical structure, lipids look like a long chain of carbon atoms with a whole lot of hydrogen atoms attached. When you break these hydrocarbon and carbon-carbon bonds, they release energy measured in calories. Fats contain more calories of energy than … [Read more...] about Organic Compound #2: Lipids
Organic Compound #1: Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are sugars. Sugars are carbohydrates. Saccharide means sugar. We commonly divide carbs into three classes: 1. Monosaccharides (means one sugar) 2. Disaccharides (made of two single sugars, snapped together) 3. Polysaccharides (many sugars snapped together) There's hundreds of types of these but we're going to go over just a few examples of each. Five examples of Monosaccharides The first two examples are 5-carbon atoms long: Ribose and Deoxyribose. Ribose is found in … [Read more...] about Organic Compound #1: Carbohydrates
Intro to Physiology and Organic Molecules
Physiology is all about explaining the mechanisms of how the body works and understanding the mechanisms of action. Physiology will introduce you to dosage calculations as well which is very important for those of you going into nursing or pharmacy. You will also learn more about medications in physiology than any other class. In this introduction we'll be talking about the stuff we are made of and what organic molecules actually are. The Chemical Composition of the Human Body Water: … [Read more...] about Intro to Physiology and Organic Molecules