The Building Blocks of Life

* Protons and electrons have equal and opposite electrical charges. Protons are positively charged, and electrons are negatively charged.

3. Oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sulfur, chlorine, sodium, and magnesium are elements essential to life.

Atoms are the basic units of matter and all life is based on them. Life on earth is based on the element carbon. It is a highly versatile atom able to form four covalent bonds with itself or other atoms such as hydrogen and water. Atoms combine to form molecules and those that are carbon based are referred to as organic molecules. Organic molecules occur in four different types in living cells; carbohydrates, lipids, proteins and nucleic acids. They are also known as hydrocarbons due to the presence of both hydrogen and carbon. Carbohydrates are made up of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen in the ratio 1:2:1. They are important sources of energy and are classified in three main groups; monosaccharides, disaccharides and polysaccharides.

The theory that C.M. Berthollet introduced about the composition of a compound was that a compound has an infinite number of compositions depending on the proportions of the components that were used in its preparation. His theory satisfies the results obtained from the whole class. Since every group had a different amount of magnesium they must also have had a different composition of magnesium in the compound formed, magnesium oxide.

The chemistry of life is Hydrogen, Oxygen, Carbon and Nitrogen combined in the right way. Combination of just the right ingredients and just the right amount. These fundamental ingredient of life. Carbon is the main ingredient. Carbon is everywhere. Carbon is very flexible and can be combined with many other. Amino acids used energy and became peptides, and which can link together to form proteins. From non-living to living

Then, nucleic acids are made up of nucleotides and has the ability to make new cells. Finally, Lipids. Lipids are made up of glycerol and fatty acids. Lipids play a big role in the body, it provides cushion and insulation for the larger organisms in our bodies. All of these macromolecules and monomers are needed to make energy.

With the mass of oxygen found, 0.02 grams, the percent compositions of magnesium and oxygen can be found by dividing their masses by the total mass of the new compound:

Essential knowledge 4.A.1: The subcomponents of biological molecules and their sequence determine the properties of that molecule

A chemical equation demonstrates the quantity of atoms of every component that make up the compound. The atomic proportion of components in the compound is the same as the molar proportion of those components. This information can be applied to solve for the mass of one mole of a compound by including the molar masses of the constituent components.

Atomic mass of calcium is 40. The mass of 2.5 gram atoms of calcium is _______.

In order for cells and organisms to “live” they need to perform certain tasks such as produce energy through respiration, send messages, maintenance and reproduction. To enable the cell to do so, it contains within small structures called organelles, each organelle is different and carries out a specific function.

There are four types of biomolecules, carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids. Carbohydrates are large chains of sugar found in food and living tissues. This includes sugars, starch, and cellulose. They have the same ratio of hydrogen and oxygen that water has, 2:1. They are broken down to release energy in the animal body. Lipids are any organic compounds that are fatty acids and don’t dissolve in water but do in organic solvents. Fatty acids can be found in natural oils, waxes, and steroids. Proteins are macromolecules that do everything in the cell. They are tools and machines that make things happen. Nucleic acids are long strands of nucleotides, and function primarily in storage and transmission of genetic information. There are two types of nucleic acids, DNA and RNA. DNA is the genetic material of all cellular organisms, and RNA sends out messages from the information that is held in the DNA.

All living organisms, from amoebas to humans, have a molecular code called DNA in their cells, which instruct the activities that keep the organism alive. DNA is made up of long, twisted strands of four molecular “letters” (A, T, G, and C), which pair up according to their complementary base pairs, and their order determines how proteins — the vital molecules that perform all the major tasks in our cells — are made. (Refer to Diagram 1 to help sum up the concept.)

According to astronomical research and geological evidence, scientist indicate the universe is approximately thirteen thousand eight hundred and twenty billion years old. The first link to humanity started with a primate group called Ardipithecus. While our ancestors have been around for about six million years, the modern form of humans only evolved about two hundred thousand years ago. The age of the Earth is estimated about four point fifty four billion years because that is the age of the oldest rocks with fossil evidence of life on earth. The oldest rocks on Earth found to date are the Acasta Gneisses in northwestern Canada near the Great Slave Lake, which are four point three billion years old. The study of the origin of life on Earth, more specifically abiogenesis, is the natural process of life arising from non-living matter. Life on Earth is believed to have began from organic compounds about three point eight to four billion years ago. Despite several competing theories for how life arose on Earth scientist only know when life first appeared on Earth and are still far from answering how it appeared. Since it is hard to prove or disprove them, no fully accepted theories of the origin of life exists.

Cells, they are the building block of all life, they are what make up the entirety of living things on Earth and without them living things would cease to exist. It is because of this that cells are considered to be the most important known unit of life and are studied so often. Cells were first observed in the mid 17th century by English physicist and microscopist Robert Hooke using on of the earliest versions of the microscope. (Biologyreference.com, 2017) Hooke’s observations led to further investigations and studies into the topic of cells resulting in many major breakthroughs in the field of biology. Possibly the biggest of these breakthroughs is credited to have being made by Theodor schwann, Matthias Schleiden and Rudolph Virchow,