The Science of Life

To begin, I would like to thank my biochemistry Professor, MaryKay Orgill, Ph. D., for fact checking this post, despite her busy schedule, and despite today being her birthday. Happy birthday Captain! Before I begin my topic today, I want to clear up some confusion the general population has about homonyms . The confusion is that the general use of a word is perceived to also be the scientific use of the same word. With the exception of the vast majority of astronomical terms (because astronomy, for the most part, has the capacity to be an exception), this is not true. These are homonyms, which are words in English which are spelled the same, sound the same, and have different definitions. In engineering, the term moment means to apply a force in a circular fashion, not a general short period of time. In biology, a Calorie is a specific unit of energy in chemical reactions, not merely something you have to consume. In chemistry, reactions are transfer of electrons ...

In this weeks blog, I will describe the second law of thermodynamics and how it applies to biochemical mechanisms. There seems to be a lot of confusion, misunderstanding, and downright misrepresentation of this topic, so the intent here is to clarify everything. The second law of thermodynamics states that the entropy always increases for spontaneous processes. Notice here that the reference frame is not specified. This is because, in most scientific realms, the context is assumed to either be an isolated system or the universe as a whole. Also notice that I said entropy always increases for a spontaneous process. For non-spontaneous processes, the entropy decreases. I will talk about spontaneous thermodynamic processes in this blog. Later today, I will post a an entry in my other blog talking about non-spontaneous thermal processes. The Second Law of Thermodynamics tells us whether a process is spontaneous or not. This is based on the h...

In the past few days, I had to switch classes. I had to drop Biology, but I have picked up Biochemistry to take its place, which is vital to my degree program. I bring this up because, seeing as how I want to have parallels between this blog and what I am learning in academia with an emphasis on the chemical, I view this as a more chemical outlook on biology, which is logical, seeing as how the name of the course is “Biochemistry”. With that in mind, let me begin with the meat of the blog. For those of you pre-medical students reading this blog who are taking organic chemistry and wondering why you need to take organic chemistry, this blog entry is one of many examples of why pre-meds need chemistry. There are also reasons why you should take physics, but that will be for future blog entries. All of us are made of chemicals. Stomach acid is a mixture of acids which are used for reacting with the food and drink we consume, to produce compounds which our intestines c...

In my last blog, I mentioned I would include four topics in this weeks blog: First, my plan for this blog. Second, the tracers for PET scans, in particular fluorine-18 tracers Third my answer to my prompt from last week Forth, a new prompt. I will do these topics in this order. I am starting my next semester on the 16 th of January. My courses will be Biology 196, Environmental Science 206, Math 286, and Chemistry 402. After todays blog, my plan is to post every week during the weekend (somewhere from Friday to Sunday) with a real world application of a topic from one of these courses for the next 17 weeks, starting next week (the weekend prior to the beginning of the semester). It is likely that I will post later in the weekend, but early-weekend posts are possible. Now, as promised, the tracers used for PET scans. PET scans are positron emission tomography, which makes a three-dimensional mapping of the functional processes of one aspect of the body, typically the brain....