Chemistry in biology?

[radl223]

Hey guys, just wanted to ask whether chemistry is a big part of biology? If so, should I familiarise myself with the basics of chemistry first before attempting to learn the concepts in biology? I'm currently trying to learn about monosaccharides etc, and there are many chemistry related things such as molecular structures of sugars and stuff that I don't understand (haven't done chemistry). Are these structures really important regarding the topic? I'm not fond of chemistry, but I'm thinking that I should just go over it a bit.

[Starlight]

They are not that important, i would revise over organelles and stuff as opposed to that, dna, rna, proteins. Just go through the chemistry component (like 5% of the semester) as they teach you.

[ggxoxo]

chemsitry won't help you that much- maybe a little bit in AOS1 though...

[nisha]

I suggest you go over some of AOS2, preferrably Chapter 12 (not sure how you are going to learn it, but the heinamein textbook...or even the internet is pretty good), where they talk about Monosaccarides, and how they are formed, and what groups they make up in Carbohydrates. It will extend your knowledge and give you a bit of a background.

[ggxoxo]

My TSFX lecturer said that they could possibly ask you to draw the structures of glucose, lipids (i.e. fatty acids, glycerol), amino acids and nucleic acids

[nisha]

If you want, I have an electronic copy of the Chem midyear exam lectures, which have summaries on carbohydrates:) pm me for the deets

[abd123]

Irrelevancy: If I were to see science in general it would be chemistry. Chemistry overlaps the two sciences really well and they are biology and physics.

Irrelevancy: If you were to study biology/human science/med @ UNI you would have to take a few chemistry units, I reckon.

Relevancy: Get a electronic copy or pdf of the first chapter from the nelson cengage bio textbook, its more or so about chemistry.

[ReganM]

Hey, I didn't do Chem at all in VCE and I didn't do Biology 1/2 when I did 3/4 last year.

The most chem-related thing that I can think of that I struggled with was balancing equations (the one for plants and photosynthesis). It wasn't even that hard since in the end I just memorised the equation.

If you have any more specific questions about drawing proteins or whatever, PM me.

[saheh]

ehh I'm totally not liking the chemistry side of this either,
I have the Nelson Textbook and i find it so confusing
maybe our teacher will explain it more

espec. with drawing the diagrams and stuff.. and the chemical bonds (hydrogen etc)

i need to be edumacated haa i have no idea

[radl223]

Okay, thanks everyone! I'm currently looking at the Nelson biology book too, and I guess this book kind of clears things up a bit since it mostly focuses on chemistry, so if anyone else has the same problem with the chem bits, try Nelson (ONLY for the chemistry background).
And @ggxoxo, yeah that's exactly what I was expecting, I have no idea how to draw those hexagonal structures and the diagrams etc..let alone even know what they mean... :S