ACCHS Biochemistry and Biophysics

Bananas are radioactive - But they aren't a good way to explain radiation exposure I had no idea that bananas could be considered radioactive because they contain isotope potassium-40. But I would also agree with the article that using a banana or the Banana Equivalent Dose is not very useful in explaining radiation to lay people. 'We are exposed to radiation all the time, just look at that banana you ate' does not help to justify or explain the impacts of radiation from things such as medical use, nuclear power plants, or electronics. I believe the terms radioactive or nuclear turn people off and simply freak people out, but it would be most beneficial to explain what makes a thing radioactive, how it can affect us, and the differences among radioactive materials. Virus Structure Viruses are so creepy!! I can't help but think how mosquitos resemble flying viruses and how they are just a vector for many diseases that even a monk would kill them - or should. I find i...

I know I'm a "living system" because... as we discussed in class, a living system is always engaged in becoming itself, has cognition, is self-enacting, and is close to its environment. To be a system, organization must be in place and that organization must be present in order for me, a living system, to exist. The organization for living systems is an autopoietic organization, that is, continually self-producing. We are constantly becoming and we can see this process as metabolism in our own bodies. If we take a microscopic look, we can see that we are completely made up of individual cells. Those cells work together to form tissues. Those tissues create organs, which organs working together create organ systems. That organ system makes up an organism, and that organism, in turn, is me. Each level of organization is continually self-producing and I, as the whole organism, am cognitive of myself and my environment. My environment shapes me in how I live and how I fuel m...

Biochemistry is a department in the school of medicine. I feel that biochemistry is a great place to start if one is going to study medicine in the Western perspective. Biology is the study of life and chemistry is the study of the composition, structure and properties of matter. Chemistry is essentially the basis of all sciences because it deals with atoms, molecules, elements - the smallest units of matter which make up the world around us. Biochemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. To heal ourselves, cure, and prevent diseases, it is imperative to understand the substances in which we are made of and what we are dealing with. However, before the invention of the microscope, humans and other living organisms lived without an understanding of molecular properties. Traditional Chinese medicine was a school of medicine that began without the study of biochemical properties and still exists today. I think biochemistry supports TCM and allow...

Aside from eating them baked at a sushi spot, in a Spanish paella, or in an Italian seafood pasta dish, I never really thought too much about mussels or the properties of the substance that allows them to concretely adhere to maritime objects. I thought them to be proliferative and unsightly, and not of much benefit to our environment or individuals who have shellfish food allergies. I'm amazed to find that the beard, the adhesive filaments, is actually quite beneficial in providing a solution for our man-made problems by mimicking its biochemistry. I believe nature is as it is, and it has with it all the answers if we are able to observe and see it clearly. But it still would not solve the issues of oil spills and water pollution - all of which are man-made. I would like to see mussel-inspired technology continue to advance to purify water and separate oil from ocean, but we must move away from extracting limited fossil fuels and oils as sources of energy, and move toward a sustai...