What knowledge have you connected with past knowledge?

Just when I thought I was safe from concepts such as redox reactions and glycolysis I once again find myself revisiting these concepts only in greater detail. Had you asked me a few weeks ago to explain redox reactions I would have likely said “Leo the Lion Goes Grrrrr”. I know it is a rather childish pneumonic, but it was engrained in me by my tenth grade honors chemistry teacher as a way to remember that loss of electrons is oxidation and gain in electrons is reduction, hence the Leo and the Grr. Howeverm after taking this class I like to think that I am slightly more enlightened and would be able to explain redox reactions as coupled reactions that are essential to metabolic pathways.


Another concept that has spurred old memories from a past class is that of chirality. When I think of chirality my thoughts immediately drift back to organic chemistry. Chirality was one of the few things in organic chemistry that made sense to me. I was thus pleased when it was introduced again in biochemistry. I will even admit to slightly enjoying deciding whether a particular glycosidic linkage was D or L or alpha or beta. It is funny as back in organic I remember thinking it was difficult at first and now it is one of the easier parts of biochemistry.

Lastly, the topic of glycolysis is something that has been touched on in most of my previous science courses and yet it is still challenging. My introduction to glycolysis was in 9th grade biology when I had to memorize the ten reactions in their most basic form. Ever since then my knowledge and understanding of glycolysis has been steadily increasing. It may just be that I am finally getting it after so many lectures upon the topic. I also think that the different ways it has been presented in classes such as biology or anatomy and physiology versus biochemistry has really helped me to garner an understanding. For example, anatomy focuses on where in the body glycolsyis takes place and how glycolysis is paired with other processes to meet the body’s energy needs. Alternately, biochemistry focuses on understanding the intricate mixing of the substrates, enzymes and products that play a part in glycolysis. Thus far this class has really helped my understanding of glycolysis and moved it far beyond a mere process that yields two molecules of ATP per molecule of glucose.