Macromolecule Mania
These biomolecules (composed of monosaccharide monomers like glucose) serve as the primary source of immediate, short-term cellular energy.
What are Carbohydrates?
Because water is polar, hydrogen bonds form between neighboring water molecules. This tendency of water molecules to stick to each other is called this.
What is Cohesion?
On the pH scale (which ranges from 0 to 14), pure water has a pH value of 7, which is classified as this.
What is Neutral?
Enzymes belong to the protein macromolecule group and act as biological catalysts. State their effect on the activation energy of a chemical reaction.
What is lowering the activation energy (providing an alternate reaction pathway)?
In an experiment testing how substrate concentration affects the rate of oxygen gas production by the enzyme catalase, identify the Independent Variable and the Dependent Variable.
Made predominantly of hydrocarbon chains (glycerol and fatty acids), these hydrophobic molecules function in long-term energy storage, organ insulation, and cell membrane structure.
What are Lipids?
The property of water that allows it to form hydrogen bonds with different charged or polar substances, such as clinging to the glass walls of a graduated cylinder to form a meniscus.
What is Adhesion?
Any solution with a pH value strictly less than 7 (ranging from 0 to 6.9) has a higher concentration of H^+ ions than OH^- ions and falls into this category.
What is Acidic (or an Acid)?
The specific region on an enzyme's 3D structure where the substrate binds to undergo a chemical reaction.
What is the Active Site?
In an experiment testing the effectiveness of a new antibacterial peptide on bacterial growth, this group is grown in identical nutrient broth but without any peptide added, serving as a baseline for comparison.
What is the Control Group (or Negative Control)?
These polymers are made of nucleotide monomers consisting of a 5-carbon sugar, a phosphate group, and a nitrogenous base, and their function is to store and transmit genetic information.
What are Nucleic Acids (DNA and RNA)?
A result of cohesion, this property creates an elastic, film-like barrier on the surface of a body of water, allowing lightweight insects like water striders to walk across ponds.
What is Surface Tension?
Solutions with a pH strictly greater than 7 (up to 14), such as bleach or soapy water, are classified as this and have a higher concentration of hydroxide ions (OH^-).
What is Basic (or Alkaline)?
When exposed to extreme temperatures or severe pH shifts outside its optimum range, an enzyme's shape unfolds, permanently destroying its active site. This process is known as this.
What is Denaturation (or being denatured)?
When testing the effect of water temperature on how quickly an aquatic plant photosynthesizes (measuring bubble production), list at least three critical constants (controlled variables) that must be maintained across all test tubes.
What are: Light intensity/distance, type of plant species, size/mass of plant, carbon dioxide concentration (NaHCO3 amount), and water pH? (Any 3 valid constants)
Chains of amino acids fold into intricate 3D shapes held together by peptide bonds to form these biomolecules, which carry out muscle contraction, cellular transport, immune defense, and chemical catalysis.
What are Proteins?
Plants rely on this combined phenomenon where adhesion pulls water molecules up microscopic xylem tube walls and cohesion pulls other water molecules along behind them to transport water upward against gravity.
What is Capillary Action?
What is an example of an acidic, neutral, basic/alkaline substance?
What is hydrochloric acid, water, and sodium hydroxide (or others)
Human salivary amylase works optimally at body temperature (37C) and a neutral pH (~6.8-7.0). Explain what happens to the rate of starch digestion if the temperature drops to 4C, and clarify whether the enzyme is denatured at this low temperature.
What is: The reaction rate slows down drastically because molecular kinetic energy decreases (fewer collisions), but the enzyme is NOT denatured?
A student tests an enzyme on one single test tube at room temperature and one test tube in boiling water, sees no reaction in the boiled tube, and publishes the conclusion. Name two critical practices missing from this setup that are required for a scientifically valid and reliable experiment.
What are repeated trials (replication/sample size) and testing intermediate temperatures (range of data points)? (Also accept: testing a negative control or verifying constants).
Which 2 macromolecules are composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen?
What is a Carbohydrate and lipid?
It takes a substantial amount of heat energy to break water's hydrogen bonds before its temperature rises. Name this property and explain how it protects aquatic organisms from sudden thermal shock.
What is High Specific Heat Capacity? (It prevents rapid temperature swings in lakes and oceans, maintaining a stable thermal environment for living organisms).
Who is the best teacher?
Sutton!
With increasing enzyme concentration, what happens over time to the reaction rate and why?
Reaction slows and eventually ceases due to an excess of enzymes and limitation of substrates.
A researcher wants to determine if an unknown river pollutant disrupts fish gill cellular membranes. Describe how a well-designed controlled experiment would set up the experimental group, the control group, and the measured outcome.