Reference no: EM132632974
1) How does kinetic energy level influence chemical reactions? How is energy level related to whether chemical reactions occur?
2) What are enzymes? How are enzymes important in cellular biochemistry?
3) Explain the concept of "catalysis." How do enzymes act as catalysts for chemical reactions? What do we mean when we talk about the "cold chemistry of the cell" and how are enzymes responsible for this?
4) Using the "lock and key model" of enzyme function, explain the following terms - active site, substrates (reactants), products, specific fit, activation energy, conformation, competitive inhibitor, non-competitive inhibitor. How is the "induced fit" model of enzyme activity different from the lock and key model? How are allosteric sites involved in modifying rates of enzyme reactions?
5) How does temperature increase or decrease change the rates of biochemical reactions? Is this effect true of enzymatic reactions as well? Why is there a limit to high temperature increases in rates of enzyme reactions?
6) What is pH? How does pH affect enzymatic reactions? What are examples of enzymes that have their maximum activity at widely different pH levels?
7) How do cells provide energy to run the cellular biochemistry of living organisms? How is ATP (adenosine triphosphate) involved? Where does ATP come from?
8) Genetic information (stored in the form of DNA) exerts major control over the biochemistry of cells: Explain.
9) How is genetic information related to enzyme biochemistry? How do cells manufacture enzymes? What makes one enzyme different from another? What is an estimate of how many enzymes cellular biochemistry typically requires?
10) How is understanding the chemical nature of living organisms important for developing our ideas (hypotheses) about how living systems evolved on the Earth?
11) Is there any chance that there could be or could have been living systems on other planets in our solar system? Do we know that there are other planetary systems similar to ours in the universe? As astronomers search for extra-terrestrial environments (planets, moons) that might support living organisms, what do you think they should look for? Would the presence of living cells on other planets mean that there are intelligent life forms there as well?