Browsing Biochemistry

Many biochemical processes are the same in all organisms.

If you had visited Biology4Kids you may recognize the topics of this section. We felt it was more appropriate to have the biochemistry section here on Chem4Kids. It is one of the crossover fields of chemistry. Biochemists have to understand both the living world and the chemical world to be the best at their jobs.

The key thing to remember is that biochemistry is the chemistry of the living world. Plants, animals, single-celled organisms... They all use the same basic chemical compounds to live their lives. Biochemistry is not about the cells or the organisms. It's about the smallest parts of those organisms, the molecules. It's also about the cycles that happen to create those compounds.

Those cycles that repeat over and over are the things that allow living creatures to survive on Earth. It could be the constant process of photosynthesis in plants that creates sugars or the building of complex proteins in the cells of your body. Every cycle has a place and they are just one building block that helps organisms live. In each of those cycles, molecules are needed and changed. It's one big network of activity where each piece relies on all of the others.

Start with the Basics

While we have been talking about all of these cycles, we think it's important that you understand the different types of molecules you will find in biochemistry. You should be thanking us. We aren't going to go into the citric acid cycle and its ten steps. We won't even look at the eleven steps involved in the breakdown of glucose (glycolysis). At your level of understanding, it's enough to understand the difference between a steroid, an amino acid, and a carbohydrate. There will be plenty of time for you to memorize the pathways and the movement of molecules during each step of a cycle.

RELATED LINKS

- Biology4Kids: Scientific Method
- Biology4Kids: Cell Structure
- Geography4Kids: Carbon Cycle
- Geography4Kids: Biosphere
- Cosmos4Kids: Saturn's Moons
- Cosmos4Kids: Earth

>	Overview
-	Metabolism
-	Cycles
-	Carbohydrates
-	Lipids
-	Nucleic Acids
-	DNA
-	Amino Acid Structure
-	20 Amino Acids
-	Proteins
-	Enzymes
-	Enz. Regulation
	MORE CHEMISTRY TOPICS

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