Wondering what is muriatic acid and how is it produced & where is it used? I have got you all covered. What is Muriatic Acid? Literally, the term muriatic is Latin for “pertaining to brine or salt”, because concentrated salt water is often used as a reagent in its manufacture. Muriatic acid is a form…
Life is possible by virtue of the coordination of various chemical reactions that constantly take place in living organisms, such as the digestion of food, absorption of necessary molecules, and production of energy. This process involves a sequence of reactions that take place within the body under very mild conditions. All of this occurs with…
Nucleic acids are polynucleotides that, together with polysaccharides and polypeptides, form the true macromolecular fraction of any living tissue or cell. Along with proteins, they are the main constituents of chromosomes and are responsible for the transmission of characters from one generation to the next (a phenomenon known as heredity). Structure of Nucleic Acids The…
All lipids are composed of carbon, hydrogen, and a little oxygen. They are insoluble in water but readily soluble in organic solvents such as benzene, acetone, and ether. Like we discussed before, lipids aren’t polymeric substances but are assembled from smaller molecules by dehydration. Lipids could be simple fatty acids or glycerol. Several lipids are…
Proteins are physically and functionally complex macromolecules that are heteropolymers of amino acids. Their very name, derived from the Greek word proteios, literally means “holding the first place” and signifies the importance of these molecules. Role of Protein Proteins play diverse roles in the biological world; for example, the spider-web protein is many times stronger…
Primarily produced by plants, carbohydrates form a most extensive group of naturally occurring organic compounds. Some common examples of carbohydrates are cane sugar, glucose, and starch. They are primarily compounds of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, and are also known as saccharides because their basic components are sugars. General Formula Most carbohydrates have a general formula,…
You have always learned that a living system can grow, sustain, and reproduce itself. The most remarkable thing about a living system is that it itself is composed of non-living atoms and molecules. The scientific study of what goes on chemically within a living system falls in the domain of biochemistry. Living systems are composed…
At some point or the other, we’ve all marveled at how diverse the living world around us is. Detailed scientific studies of these organisms only emphasized their diversity even more. However, there also exists unity underlying this diversity – and the theory that emphasizes this unity is the cell theory. The cell serves as the…
Like all humans who have red-colored blood, there are few organisms that have varying blood colors. Spiders and octopuses have blue color blood, cockroaches have white/colorless blood, grasshopper, leeches, and some varieties of earthworm have green color blood and so on. Apart from these, there are more facts about the blood. In this article, a…
