Chemicals of life
There are many things to know about life, such as how are we born or digest
food. C.H.O.N are the basic atoms of life, which include Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen,
and Nitrogen. Carbon atoms are important because, since the atom has 4 valence
electrons the atom is versatile which makes the atom great at bonding into things
like Carboxyl, which give properties to the molecule. Hydrogen atoms are important
because it is the most reactive atom known to mankind, because it has only 1
electron. Hydrogen atoms are used in things, which help us to live like water, and
things that kill us like nuclear bombs. Oxygen atoms are important because the atom
is ubiquitous and it is needed for breathing the oxygen atom has 6 valence electrons.
Nitrogen atoms are important because of many reasons it has 5 valence electrons
which makes it reactive; it is a ubiquitous atom, it comes in a gas form, and most of
all it is very well bonded together, which makes the reaction hard to break apart, it
also helps fertilize soil so we could grow food for out nutrients. The important
things about the atoms are that they include potential energy and example would be
a hydrogen ion having a very reactive nature and when reacted creates energy.
In the process of creating energy bonds are needed, there are 4 types of
atomic bonds. A covalent bond is when atoms share their valence electrons and it is
the strongest type of bond as the bond is very hard to break apart, because of the
atoms having the amount of electrons they want. An ionic bond is when atoms give
or take away electrons, the bonds are weaker in an ionic bond and because the
bonds are the result of giving and taking instead of sharing the atoms end up being
wither positive or negative. A hydrogen bond is a bond formed with hydrogen and
another chemical, because of hydrogen having only one electron the atoms are
closer to each other than the other bonds. A prime example of a hydrogen bond is
water. A Van der Walls bond is the weakest of all the bonds but the electrons of one
atom would reach the nucleus of another breaking through the valence electron
shell. An example would be geckos’ feet sticking to the walls. The properties of the
atom when bonded together give new structures of properties so that using the
simple 4 atoms (C.H.O.N) we can build millions of proteins, lipids, carbohydrates
and nucleic acid. Different types of reactions make different types of molecules. An
example of a very common molecule is water. Water is a Universal solvent so it can
dissolves things and it also can bind itself onto things making them polar. To some
degree water can be a solid, which has surface tension. Water also helps with
evaporative cooling so as we sweat waster comes out with the water through our
skin.
There are many types of molecules in the human body; Macromolecules are
the most important ones in life though. Carbohydrates or Polysaccharides are one of
the very important macromolecules; they are made of saccharides monomers and
bonded by 1-4 glycoside linage. Carbohydrates in general provide and store energy
in animals, plants and bacteria. Carbohydrates produce starch or Alpha Glucose,
which are geometric isomers. They provide most energy to this in the planet; every
culture based their food on starch. Another thing that carbohydrates produce are
Cellulose or beta Glucose, which are also geometric isomers. Humans cannot digest
cellulose but plants use it for their structure like cell walls. Proteins or Polypeptides
are also important in the human body, as it is important for growing, repairing and
building cells. Proteins are created by amino acid forming peptide bonds, which are
also enzymes. There are many kinds of proteins and many kinds of structures; the
four main structures are primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary structures.
The bonds are also affected by the chaperonin, which bends the shape of the
structures. As long as the primary structure is not destroyed the bonds could be
denatured and then renature back to normal. Nucleic Acids are another important
macromolecules. Nucleic acids are created by nucleotides (A, T, C, G, U) and bond
with 3-5 primes bonding. They code the DNA and RNA in the human bodies, which
gives us the features we have such as skin color or height that are gained from
genetics, they also add Deoxy to our bodies prolonging our miserable lives. There
are many kinds of bonding between these macromolecules such as Hydroxyls (OH-),
It makes the thing basic & polar making it hydrophilic, Carbonyl – (R-C=0-R or H)
which could be Ketones or Aldehyde, Carboxyl (R-C=OH) which makes things polar
and acidic, Amine – NH2, they makes things basic e.g. glycine amino acids is Amine +
Carboxyl, Sulfhydryl – SH, SH – SH = which creates the Disulfide bridge cross linking
stuff such as hair, Phosphate - PO4 = which makes energy, and makes things polar
by being negative, Methyl Group – CH2, They are a biological marker and also used
to control emotions. These bonds are created by catabolic and anabolic reactions
which in simple terms are taking and creating more of themselves. In Protein lining
up the amino acids and forming a peptide bond creates the Primary structure. 2
types of acids, Hydrophilic, form a Secondary structure and hydrophobic, the
hydrophilic acids surrounds the hydrophobic acids protecting them from water
outside. The tertiary bond is created when a secondary bond gets too tight together
making more bonds within itself such as Ionic bonds, hydrogen bonds, Van der walls
and the disulfide bridge. The quaternary bond is having 2 tertiary bonds and
sticking them together. These structures combined with the different bonds create
special enzymes in different places in the body.
Enzymes are an important part of life because it has the function of delaying
or accelerating the rate of growth and decay of anything in life including
metabolism. Every enzyme can react with one substrate at a time, and every enzyme
has a particular thing it reacts with, which the term is called substrate specificity.
The enzyme can react many times but just with one pattern, like how a key can open
the same lock many times, but could only open that lock. Although the enzymes have
different patterns needed for it to react with there are many ways to change the rate
or reactions in an enzyme if extracted. The changes in the enzyme reaction could be
controlled by the amount of enzymes and substrate changes, the temperature, and
the change in pH (acid amount), but it is a crude way to control the reactions. The
best way is to change the cofactor, which is any chemical that needs to be present
for the enzyme to do its job; some enzymes need it to work. Any chemical that
works with the enzyme by binding to it and make it the right shape could be called a
cofactor; if the chemical is a protein it’s called a coenzyme. There are 2 main types of
cofactors that works with enzymes, an Activator which make the enzyme do it’s job
or an Inhibitor which stops the enzymes from doing it’s job. There are 2 ways Active
sight or Allosteric, Active sight will bind onto the front, but Allosteric binds to a
different place. An inhibitor that binds an active sight inhibitor can be called a
competitive inhibitor; an allosteric inhibitor can be called a non-competitive
inhibitor. These reactions also create feedbacks, which is when the results tell about
the actions. There are Positive and negative feedbacks. Positive feedbacks make
more of it to reach a goal. (Anabolic) Negative feedback makes less of the enzymes
because it will exceed the limit. (Catabolic) The reactions can also reach a point of
equilibrium, which is the balance between the substrate and the enzyme.
The way that humans organize themselves and put up the ideas of them are
weird considering we are just a messed up bunch of chemicals. A Human’s
Organization is disorganization for the universe. Human bodies are disorganization
because of the fact that everything is reacting all the time, and different things
happen within us that the universe cannot did not create to be this way. If humans
are disorganization then everything in the form of life is disorganization. The idea of
this essay is to express the point that us as humans are just a mixed bag of chemicals
that happens to be smart enough to realize that fact, and how the chemicals by using
bonds change into monomers, then macromolecules which provides the functions
and properties for us to “live” as humans, and lastly with the lock and key theory
about how things could change in life if the right situation occurs.