Atomic Basics
This subatomic particle has a positive charge and determines an element's identity.
What is a proton?
The attraction between water molecules and other water molecules is known as this property.
What is cohesion?
Monosaccharides are the monomers for carbohydrates, while these are the monomers that make up proteins.
What are amino acids?
Enzymes act as biological catalysts by lowering this specific energy barrier needed to start a reaction
What is activation energy?
Water molecules stick together because of this weak attraction between the positive hydrogen end of one water molecule and the negative oxygen end of another.
What is a hydrogen bond?
Atoms of the same element that have different numbers of neutrons are called this.
What are isotopes?
Because water requires a high amount of energy to change temperature, it has a high this, which helps organisms maintain homeostasis.
What is specific heat capacity?
This structural polysaccharide forms the rigid cell walls of plants and cannot be digested by humans.
What is cellulose?
The specific substrate-binding location on an enzyme where the catalytic reaction takes place is called this.
What is the active site?
Substances that resist changes in pH by accepting or donating H+ ions when acids or bases are added are called this.
What are buffers?
This type of chemical bond forms when electrons are shared unequally between two atoms due to differences in electronegativity.
Water is referred to as the "universal solvent" primarily because of this molecular property.
What is polarity?
Lipids that contain one or more double bonds in their fatty acid tails, causing kinks that keep them liquid at room temperature, are called this.
What are unsaturate fatty acids?
The starting substances in a chemical reaction (found on the left side of a chemical equation arrow) are called these
What are the reactants?
Electrons in the outermost shell of an atom—which are directly involved in forming chemical bonds—are called these.
What are valence electrons?
An atom that has gained or lost electrons, acquiring a net electrical charge, is called this.
What is an ion?
This phenomenon allows water to move upward against gravity in plant xylem vessels through a combination of adhesion, cohesion, and surface tension.
What is capillary action?
The monomer of nucleic acids consists of three main components: a 5-carbon sugar, a phosphate group, and this nitrogenous structure.
What is a nitrogenous base?
A reaction that can proceed in both directions (forward to make products, and backward to reform reactants) is represented by a double arrow and is called this.
What is a reversible reaction?
The specific groove or pocket on an enzyme where the substrate attaches like a key in a lock is called this.
What is the active site?
This term describes the measure of an atom's ability to attract shared electrons in a chemical bond.
What is electronegativity?
Substances that do not dissolve in water because they are nonpolar and "water-fearing" are referred to as this.
The reaction that joins two monomers together by removing a molecule of water is called dehydration synthesis, while the reverse reaction that breaks polymers apart using water is called this.
What is hydrolysis?
When an enzyme's environment experiences extreme heat or non-optimal pH, its hydrogen bonds break and it loses its 3D shape, a process known as this.
What is denaturation?
The chemical reaction that builds polymers by joining monomers together and removing a molecule of water is called this.
What is dehydration synthesis?