129 articles
Biochemistry & the Chemistry of Life
Proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, DNA, enzymes and the chemistry happening inside living things.
Venoms and Toxins: How They Attack the Body
How venoms work chemically: neurotoxins that block nerve signals, enzymes that destroy tissue, blood-clotting toxins, how antivenom works, and the medicines born from venom.
Collagen: The Body's Most Abundant Protein
The chemistry of collagen: the Gly-X-Y repeat, the triple helix, why vitamin C matters, cross-links, gelatin, ageing, and what collagen supplements really do.
DNA and RNA Chemistry Practice
14 practice questions on nucleotide structure, base pairing, Chargaff's rules, replication, transcription, the genetic code, mutations and DNA calculations, with worked answers.
Enzymes Practice Questions
14 exam-style enzyme questions — active sites, temperature and pH, inhibition, Michaelis–Menten, Lineweaver–Burk, rate calculations and practical design — with full answers.
The Genetic Code: Chemistry of Information
How a four-letter chemical alphabet codes for proteins: codons, the codon table, tRNA and base pairing, wobble, start and stop signals, mutations and how the code was cracked.
Ketosis: The Chemistry of Burning Fat
What ketone bodies are, how the liver makes them from fatty acids, why the brain can use them, the difference between nutritional ketosis and ketoacidosis, and 'keto breath'.
The Kidneys as Chemical Filters
How the kidneys clean blood: filtration by size and charge, selective reabsorption, urea from the ornithine cycle, acid–base control, hormones, kidney stones and dialysis.
Lactic Acid and Muscle Soreness: Myth vs Chemistry
Lactic acid is blamed for the burn and next-day soreness. Here are eight common myths about lactate, and what the chemistry of muscle actually shows.
Melanin: The Chemistry of Skin Colour
How melanin is made from tyrosine, why eumelanin and pheomelanin differ, how it absorbs UV, why skin tans, and the chemistry behind freckles, albinism and grey hair.
Pharmacology Basics for Chemistry Students
The chemistry behind how medicines act: agonists and antagonists, dose–response curves, half-life, pKa and absorption, metabolism, and the therapeutic index.
Teaching Biomolecules: Food Tests and Models
A teaching guide for biomolecules: a three-lesson outline, food-test practicals, model-building activities, misconceptions to expect and questions to check understanding.
Teaching DNA as a Chemical
A teaching guide that treats DNA as a molecule: a three-lesson plan with extraction, paper and bead models, base-pairing chemistry, electrophoresis, misconceptions and questions.
Teaching Enzymes With Practicals
A teaching guide for enzymes: a four-lesson sequence built around catalase, amylase and trypsin practicals, models, misconceptions to expect and graded questions.
Teaching Photosynthesis from a Chemistry Angle
A teaching guide that frames photosynthesis as redox and energy chemistry: three lessons with pondweed, leaf-disc and chromatography practicals, misconceptions and questions.
Adrenaline (Epinephrine): Fight-or-Flight Chemistry
A chemical profile of adrenaline: its catecholamine structure and chirality, how the body makes it from tyrosine, how it acts through α and β receptors, the fight-or-flight response, its history as the first isolated hormone, and its medical uses in anaphylaxis and cardiac arrest.
Amino Acids: Structure and the 20 Standard Types
The general structure of amino acids, chirality and L-forms, zwitterions and isoelectric points, and all 20 standard amino acids grouped by side chain (non-polar, polar, acidic and basic) with codes and key features.
ATP: The Cell's Energy Currency
What ATP is and why its hydrolysis releases energy: structure, 'high-energy' phosphate bonds explained properly, the ΔG of ATP hydrolysis, energy coupling, how ATP is regenerated, phosphocreatine, and how much ATP your body recycles each day.
Base Pairing: A–T and G–C
Why adenine pairs with thymine and guanine with cytosine: hydrogen-bond donors and acceptors, purine–pyrimidine geometry, Chargaff's rules, GC content and melting temperature, base stacking, wobble pairs and why pairing errors cause mutations.
Carbon Monoxide Poisoning: The Chemistry
Why carbon monoxide is so dangerous: how incomplete combustion makes it, why it binds haemoglobin's iron about 200–250 times more strongly than oxygen, the left-shifted oxygen curve, effects on cells, symptoms, treatment with oxygen and how CO detectors work.
Cellular Respiration: The Chemistry of Burning Glucose
Respiration as controlled combustion: the overall equation and its energy, why cells release energy in small steps, the four stages (glycolysis, link reaction, Krebs cycle, oxidative phosphorylation), redox and NAD⁺, the ATP yield and efficiency.
How Painkillers Work
The chemistry of pain relief: how pain signals start, how aspirin and ibuprofen block COX enzymes and prostaglandins, the puzzle of paracetamol and its overdose chemistry, how opioids act on the body's own pain-control receptors, and how local anaesthetics block nerve signals.
How We Smell: Odour Molecules and Receptors
The chemistry of smell: what makes a molecule volatile and odorous, how about 400 olfactory receptors combine to recognise thousands of smells, why mirror-image molecules can smell different, how thiols are detected at parts per billion, and smell's role in flavour.
Chlorophyll: Why Plants Are Green
The chemistry of chlorophyll: its porphyrin-like ring with a central magnesium ion, why it absorbs red and blue light and reflects green, chlorophyll a vs b, accessory pigments, what happens when light is absorbed, and autumn colours.
Cholesterol: The Chemistry of a Misunderstood Molecule
What cholesterol actually is: its steroid structure, why the body needs it for membranes, hormones, bile and vitamin D, how it travels in LDL and HDL, where it comes from, and what 'good' and 'bad' cholesterol really mean.
Protein Denaturation: Why Eggs Turn White When Cooked
What happens when proteins lose their shape: how heat, pH, salts, heavy metals, solvents and mechanical stress denature proteins, which bonds break and which survive, reversibility, and everyday examples from cooking eggs to perming hair.
Disaccharides: Sucrose, Lactose and Maltose
How two sugars join through a glycosidic bond: the condensation and hydrolysis reactions, sucrose, lactose and maltose compared, α and β linkages, why sucrose is non-reducing, invert sugar and lactose intolerance.
The Structure of DNA: The Double Helix
The chemistry of the DNA double helix: antiparallel strands, complementary base pairs, the sugar–phosphate backbone, major and minor grooves, dimensions, what holds the helix together, and how Franklin, Watson and Crick worked it out.
Dopamine: Chemistry and Function
A chemical profile of dopamine: its catecholamine structure, how it's made from tyrosine and broken down, its pathways in the brain, its real role in movement, motivation and reward prediction, Parkinson's disease and L-DOPA, and how drugs affect it.
Fatty Acids: Saturated, Unsaturated and Essential
How fatty acid structure controls the properties of fats: chain length, saturated vs unsaturated, cis and trans double bonds, omega-3 and omega-6, essential fatty acids, melting points, hydrogenation and naming shorthand.
Glucose: Ring and Chain Forms
How glucose switches between an open chain and a six-membered ring, what α- and β-glucose are, how Fischer and Haworth projections show them, mutarotation, and why the ring form matters for starch, cellulose and sugar tests.