"Biochemistry" Article Items

Finding Junk DNA in your DNA Watson and Crick discovered the chemical structure of the DNA molecule.  These brilliant scientists were able to determine the structure consisted of two complementary strands wrapped around each other, with one strand going in one direction while the other strand went in the other direction. Each of these strands was composed of subunits called “nucleotides,” each strand containing a sugar molecule (deoxyribose in the case of DNA) attached to a phosphate group and one of four bases: adenine, thymine, cytosine, or guanine. The Code for Life DNA is really an immensely complicated code for… Read More »

Information and Life All life on earth is made from organic molecules. An organic compound is any chemical compound containing carbon-hydrogen bonds.  The propensity for carbon to form chains and complex structures means there are millions of organic molecules possible. Only a minuscule portion of the possible organic molecules possible are used in all life; these are referred to a life organic molecules.  Examples of these would be glucose or simple sugar, and proteins which are chains of other organic molecules called amino acids. Biology textbooks frequently suggest that given enough time under the right condition, the right organic molecules… Read More »