A.  Daily Blog

10/13/10: Today we started Chapter 6. Sadly, there were no cell phone polls, only a lecture about how we need to better manage our time. Chapter 6 is all about energy. There are two types, kinetic and potential. Potential energy was demonstrated with Suma's hair-band aimed at John T, showing that there is potential for energy to be released. Kinetic energy is the actual energy of motion. We also reviewed the Laws of Thermodynamics. In molecules, chemical energy is stored within carbon and hydrogen bonds. To finish up class, we differentiated between exergonic and endergonic reactions, and how to state them in a sentence.

10/15/10: No cell phone polls today. The topic of the day was enzymes. We talked about the activation energy of a reaction which is: the amount of energy required to cause a reaction to occur. Usually this energy level is high, and requires a lot of energy, therefore it would take much longer. Enzymes destabilize bonds so that when it comes time for the reaction to occur, not as much energy is required. Dr. Weber compared this to him breaking his marker as it normally is, whereas if he sawed it partially "before coming to class", he could probably break it with ease and "seem stronger than he actually is". This helped students get a perspective of how enzymes work. After, we discussed Vmax: the full capacity of a reaction and Km: half of the normal capacity of a reaction. We also talked about inhibition: how enzymes cannot continuously create products. Competitive inhibition and noncompetitive inhibition are two ways in which substrates are blocked from gaining access to the enzyme, so that the product cannot be created. Class was ended on a good note, and we were told to have a good weekend. You too Dr. Weber!

B.  Useful Materials

This video summarizes how enzymes work and what inhibition is. Inhibition is when substances bind to the enzyme to prevent the creation of products from the substrate. Inhibitors bind either to the active site or elsewhere on the enzyme, not allowing the substrate to bind to the enzyme, and preventing the creation of products.

This video briefly explains oxidation and reduction processes by using the example of silver and sulfur (tarnish). These reactions cannot proceed without the other, this happens by the taking/stripping of electrons from one atom, while another atom gains those electrons.

This is an article about how mRNA processing and degradation can be affected by temperature. This experiment was carried out in Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells.

A nuclear 3'-5' exonuclease involved in mRNA degradation interacts with Poly(A) polymerase and the hnRNA protein NpI3p.