Chemistry for Biologists

KEY POINTS:

• Any school student considering a career in the medical industry know that chemistry is the subject that universities and colleges will ask for in applications – and then biology.
• For centuries there was the belief that any living organisms contained a vital spark that separated them from non-living entities (some referred to this as a soul). This was ‘vitalism’, a belief that is still held in some traditional healing practices.
• In 1828 Fredrich Wohler synthesised urea from inorganic components. This began the advent of scientists, and in particular chemists, being able to replicate and synthesise compounds previously thought to be only possible through the mysteries of nature (and a higher power – God, the Force…).  In effect it began the possibility that life in its various guises could begin in the laboratory.
• There is no doubt that a myriad of mysteries of the chemistry of life still remain – the workings of the brain are still only beginning to be understood – but biochemistry has made what was previously thought to be impossible possible.
• Underpinning biochemistry is the discipline of organic chemistry – the study of compounds containing carbon. The complexity of this discipline of chemistry is briefly introduced in the next page. However within organisms there are multiple ionic compounds, elements and other substances also playing important roles – therefore inorganic chemistry is of equal importance in many ways.