3: The Chemical Foundation of Life

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Elements in various combinations comprise all matter, including living things. Some of the most abundant elements in living organisms include carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur, and phosphorus. These form the nucleic acids, proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids that are the fundamental components of living matter. Biologists must understand these important building blocks and the unique structures of the atoms that make up molecules, allowing for the formation of cells, tissues, organ systems, and entire organisms.

3.1: Prelude to The Chemical Foundation of Life
All biological processes follow the laws of physics and chemistry, so in order to understand how biological systems work, it is important to understand the underlying physics and chemistry. For example, the flow of blood within the circulatory system follows the laws of physics that regulate the modes of fluid flow. The breakdown of the large, complex molecules of food into smaller molecules is a series of chemical reactions that follow chemical laws.
3.2: The Classification of Matter
Matter can be described with both physical properties and chemical properties. Matter can be identified as an element, a compound, or a mixture.
3.3: Atoms, Isotopes, Ions, and Molecules - The Building Blocks
At its most fundamental level, life is made up of matter. Matter is any substance that occupies space and has mass. Elements are unique forms of matter with specific chemical and physical properties that cannot be broken down into smaller substances by ordinary chemical reactions. There are 118 elements, but only 92 occur naturally. The remaining elements are synthesized in laboratories and are unstable.
3.4: Lewis Electron Dot Structures
Ionic substances are completely held together by ionic bonds. The full charges of the ions (for example, Na+ and Cl− in sodium chloride) cause electrostatic interactions that result in a stable crystal lattice. Ionic compounds exist as extended, orderly arrangements of ions. This is quite different from the structure of molecular substances, which take the form of collections of individual molecules.
3.5: Representing Structures
Lewis structures are great for small molecules but can be complicated when dealing with large molecules. There are a variety of ways that we can represent molecules that provide use with enough information without creating a complicated figure. T
3.E: The Chemical Foundation of Life (Exercises)

Contributors and Attributions

Connie Rye (East Mississippi Community College), Robert Wise (University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh), Vladimir Jurukovski (Suffolk County Community College), Jean DeSaix (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), Jung Choi (Georgia Institute of Technology), Yael Avissar (Rhode Island College) among other contributing authors. Original content by OpenStax (CC BY 4.0; Download for free at http://cnx.org/contents/185cbf87-c72...f21b5eabd@9.87).