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Santa Barbara, California
List of contents
6 Introduction
Chapter 1: Biochemistry’s Context 12 GLOSSARY
14 Life’s Scale
16 Life’s Units
18 Life’s Power
20 Life’s Rules
22 Life’s Matrix
24 Life’s Give & Take
26 Profile: Lawrence Henderson
28 Life’s Organizing Force
Chapter 2: Building Blocks 32 GLOSSARY
34 Elements
36 Bonds: Life’s Handedness
38 Chains: Biological Polymers
40 Lipids
42 Sweetness: Carbohydrates
44 Profile: Frederick Sanger
46 Life’s Letters: Nucleotides
48 Workforce: Amino Acids
& Peptides
Chapter 3: Machinery 52 GLOSSARY
54 Protein Folding & Aggregation
56 Shape: Protein Structure
58 Profile: Max Perutz
60 Roads & Rafters: Structural
Proteins
62 Motors
64 Transport & Storage
66 Membranes, Messengers
& Receptors
68 Making Life Go: Enzymes
Chapter 4: Harvesting Energy 72 GLOSSARY
74 Life’s Currency
76 Using Big Carbs
78 Using Small Carbs
80 Long-term Storage
& Burning Fats
82 The Central Hub
84 Profile: Hans Krebs
86 ATP From Air
88 Mobilizing the Cell
Chapter 5: Making Life 92 GLOSSARY
94 Burning in Reverse:
Photosynthesis
96 Bringing in the Nitrogen
98 Pooling the Amino Acids
100 The Making of the
Message Bearers
102 Maintaining the Code
104 Profile: James Watson, Francis
Crick & Rosalind Franklin
106 Reading the Book
108 Doctoring Decoding: Epigenetics
110 Finding the Source
Chapter 6: Staying Alive 114 GLOSSARY
116 In & Out: Digestion & Excretion
118 Blood, Breath & Balance
120 Moving
122 Profile: Hugh Huxley
124 Biochemistry on the Brain
1 26 Detox
128 Electrolyte Balance
130 Coordinating the Defence
Chapter 7: In Sickness & Health 134 GLOSSARY
136 Things We Need
138 Staying Fit
140 Progeny & the Pill
142 Maintaining the Right Balance
144 Repelling the Hijackers
146 Profile: Gertrude Elion
& George Hitchings
148 When Cells Break Bad
150 Gene Editing
152 Appendices
154 Resources
156 Notes on Contributors
158 Index
160 Acknowledgements
About the author
Stephen Contakes is Associate Professor of Chemistry at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California, where he teaches courses in inorganic, analytic and physical chemistry. With a background in organometallic and bioinorganic chemistry, his research interests involve the preparation of redox-active hydrogen bonded assemblies and photoactive nanoparticle catalysts for use in pollutant remediation.
Summary
30-Second Biochemistry presents the subject's 50 most important ideas, breaking down the proteins, carbohydrates and more to explain the science of living organisms.
