- Carbon is central to the chemistry of life. What properties of the element carbon allow it to play this important and central role?
- Name three macromolecules, the subunits they’re made from and at least two functions for each.
- Fat (triacylglycerol) and phospholipids are lipids that are structurally similar to one another. Steroids on the other hand are structurally different than fat or phospholipids, yet they are also lipids.
- Compare and contrast the structures of fat (triacylglycerol) and phospholipid.
- What structural feature of phospholipids makes them suited to their role as a component of biological membranes?
- Explain why fats and steroids, which are structurally very different, are both classified as lipids.
- What are the main health hazards of too much added sugar in the diet?
- Trans fats are fats that contain trans double bonds in at least one fatty acid.
- What’s the difference between trans double bonds and cis double bonds?
- Where do trans fats come from?
- Why are they banned in the US?
- Consider the fact that even very simple organisms can make thousands of different proteins.
- How is it possible to make so many proteins from a just set of 20 amino acids? Explain in detail based on your knowledge of protein structure.
- How many different sequences are possible for a protein that is 10 amino acids long?
- DNA contains information that encodes the properties of an organism. The information flows from generation to generation and from DNA to protein.
- What are the steps in the flow of information from DNA to protein, i.e. gene expression?
- The molecule below is a nucleotide (A in this case). Circle and name the three functional groups (chemical groups) that make up a nucleotide.
- How are (deoxy)nucleotides made into the double helix that carries genetic information?
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