Saturday, December 31, 2011

Happy New Year!

I wish to all a happy 2012! :)

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Music about the thermodynamics of metabolism

The song Yesterday, from The Beatles, was used to create a music about the thermodynamics of the cellular metabolism. Here it is the final result, directly drom Dr. Ahern's imagination (www.davincipress.com/metabmelodies.html)...

http://www.mediafire.com/?2fqq9en6ujrktbn

The Cell's Lament

Instructor sings
Woe is me
My substrates are losing entropy
Causing gains in Gibbs free energy
Oh I can't lose no en - tro- py

Re-a-lly
I could use a source of enthalpy
To combat the rise in Delta G
Oh I believe in enthalpy


Everyone sings
I crave en-er-gy
Don't you see?
It's getting worse

My re-actions all
Soon will stall
And then rever-r-r-se

Instructor sings
ATP
It's the metabolic currency
Guess I'll spend a bit judiciously
To help reduce the Delta G
Help reduce the Delta G

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Merry Christmas!

I wish to all visitors of World of Biochemistry, and particularly to its followers, a very Merry Christmas, fukk of peace and joy! :)

Friday, December 16, 2011

Thiol group

The thiol group, or sulphydryl group or mercaptan group, is the functional group –SH. The prefix "thio" in this, and other functional groups, means that it has a sulfur atom instead of an oxygen (for example, there are also the thioester and thioether groups...). In this case, the ending suffix "ol", tells us that indeed this group is a group derived from an alcohol. That is, instead of the hydroxyl group –OH, we have sulfur in the place of the oxygen. One very important difference with respect to hydroxyl groups is related to the fact that the thiol groups present a weak acid behavior.
Since it has sulfur in its composition, the presence of thiol groups often confers to molecules an unpleasant odor.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Famous sentence (6)

Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter." - Mark Twain

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Music about biochemistry (2)

Here it goes another song about biochemistry made by Dr. Ahern (www.davincipress.com/metabmelodies.html), this time with the interesting name Brain farts. :) It was adapted from the Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head.

http://www.mediafire.com/?2zsrhqcgs2gkg2u

Brain Farts Just Happen In My Head
Brain farts just happen in my head
I think it might be due to something Kevin said
Bi-o-che-mis-try
Gets brain farts a poppin' in my head and they're poppin'
So I just wiped out the teardrops from my eyes
And told my brain it had to do some men-tal exer-cise
Burn some ATP
So brain farts can stop inside my head they'll be stoppin'
'Cause there's one thing I've learned
When energy increases it sure pleases
My mental state - I'm doing great as tension eases
Now brain farts don't happen in my head
So I'm sure the final will be easier instead
Cyclic AMP
Stops brain farts from poppin' in my head they're not poppin'
Thanks to caffeine
Nothin's worryin' me

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Ether group

The ether functional group is characterized by the presence of an oxygen atom shared by two carbons (can be alkyl or aryl groups). It is therefore a functional group that appears in an internal position within the molecules. Its general formula is C1-O-C2.
 
The C-O-C bond angle has about 104.5 °, with a bonding distance of 140pm. The ether group is a polar functional group, because the COC bond angle is not 180°, which impairs the molecule dipoles to cancel each other. Although it cannot function as an H donor in hydrogen bonds, it can function as an acceptor of them.


In biochemistry, the ether groups are present, for example, in the O-glycosidic bonds.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Scientific jokes (9)

Did you hear about the biologist who had twins? 
She baptized one and kept the other as a control.