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Biological organic compounds

By: HWC, Views: 6079

Biological organic compounds contain covalent bonds, mainly C-C and C-H bonds, but also both C and H bonded to such other atoms as O and N. Some of these covalent bonds are nonpolar. Others are polar, either because one atom in the group "hogs" electrons away from other atoms in the group, or...

Anatomy and Chemical Makeup of a Single Hair (Animation)

By: HWC, Views: 4927

The hair's outer cuticle surrounds hair cells filled with tough keratin macrofibrils. Each macrofibril consists of smaller microfibrils. A microfibril is made up of three keratin polypeptide chains. The chains are linked together by disulfide bonds. A hair consists of keratin chains held...

Activation Energy - Valence Electrons

By: HWC, Views: 6107

■ Shared electrons in the outermost orbital form bonds. These electrons are called valence electrons. ■ Valence electrons are disrupted and can be rearranged into a new bond. ■ The energy necessary to start a reaction and break bonds is called the activation energy. ■ Reactants have...

Major Elements in Biological Molecules: Lipids

By: HWC, Views: 5922

A triglyceride (also called triacylglycerol) is composed of three fatty acid molecules and one glycerol molecule. The fatty acids attach to the glycerol molecule by a covalent ester bond. The long hydrocarbon chain of each fatty acid makes the triglyceride molecule nonpolar and hydrophobic. Pa...

Primary Active Transport - electrochemical gradient and ion transport / water movement

By: HWC, Views: 6770

Energy derived from ATP changes the shape of a transporter protein which pumps a substance across a plasma membrane against its concentration gradient An electrochemical gradient is a gradient of electrochemical potential, usually for an ion that can move across a membrane. The gradient consis...

Structure of Amino Acid, Peptide Bonds & Polypeptides

By: HWC, Views: 6140

Here are the molecular formulas of three different amino acids. All amino acids share this backbone. The main difference between every amino acid is the side groups seen here, and these side groups give each of the amino acids their different characteristics. But before we get into that, let's ...

Neurotransmission at chemical synapses & Excitory and inhibitory potentials

By: HWC, Views: 6569

• A series of events occur at chemical synapses in order to communicate with the adjacent cell. • The action potential arrives at the presynaptic membrane. • The depolarization phase of the action potential opens voltage gated Ca+ channels. • increased inflow of Ca+' into the cyto...

How do the different types of chromatography work? (No Audio)

By: HWC, Views: 5988

Chromatography is a term for a variety of techniques in which a mixture of dissolved components is fractionated as it moves through some type of porous matrix. A glass column is filled with beads of an inert matrix. The mixture of proteins to be purified is dissolved in a solution and passed ...

Simple and Double Sugar

By: HWC, Views: 6481

Here are the molecular structures of three simple sugars: glucose, ribose, and fructose. Look at these simple sugars and identify what characteristics they all share. As you can see, all of the carbohydrates have carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen in a ratio of 1:2:1 and there is always a double bo...