In order to better understand the concept of isomerism, it is good to begin at the root of the word itself. Isomerism can be broken down from ancient Greek language. In Greek, iso means “same”, while meros translates to “part.” From this, one can deduce that isomerism is a concept associated with similar parts. Essentially, isomerism in chemistry is defined as having two or more molecules containing the same number and kind of atoms, but differing in structure and/or function. Today, one can learn about several types of isomers that are highly important in our world. Isomerism is considered to be a great advance in our understanding of chemistry, especially organic chemistry. But how is it that this concept came to be a part of science? The …show more content…
For example, some biological isomers can be more active than others. This means that one isomer can perform more work than the next one in a metabolic pathway. Isomers are important to life because of the fact that humans are composed of a series of arrangements of organic molecules like carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, etc. that require a great level of complexity in order to carry out essential biological processes. All these arrangements are not only complex in their content of atoms, but also in their bonding. They are usually composed of a series of single or double bonds that can even form ring structures. For this reason most organic compounds in life are more than likely to have an isomer. Furthermore, evolution of biological systems has always been known to favor the use of one isomer over another in order to move forward and benefit that system. Isomerism is also a highly important concept to understand in the drug production process. Several drugs are fabricated yearly and adapted to fight several symptoms of sickness throughout the human biological system. Such symptoms include pain, allergies, infection, psychological problems, and so on. The way these drugs become effective is through the interaction with protein receptors in the human body that will target the specific protein in the problem area. The drug will have to mimic the proteins in the problem area and in most cases the drugs will change the conformation or function of a protein-enzyme system in order to regulate that metabolic pathway. The only way a drug can mimic a human protein receptor and change its conformation is through the concept of an isomer. The drug will have the same atom kind and number, leading to an identical chemical formula. However, the function will vary, making the drug effective in the metabolic pathway. These examples are enough to prove
This chemistry book report is focus on a book called “Napoleon's buttons: How 17 molecules changed history” by Penny Le Couteur and Jay Burreson. The publisher of this book is Tarcher Putnam, the book was published in Canada on 2003 with 17 chapters (hey the number match the title of the book!) and a total of 378 pages. The genre of this book is nonfiction. “Napoleon's Buttons” contain a fascinating story of seventeen groups of molecules that have greatly changed the course of history and continuing affect the world we live in today. It also reveal the astonishing chemical connection among some unrelated events, for example: Chemistry caused New Amsterdamers to be renamed New Yorkers and one little accident of detonating cotton apron in a minor housekeeping mishap lead to the development of modern explosives and the founding of the movie industry.
“Banting and Macleod Win the Nobel Prize for the Discovery of Insulin, 1921-1923.” DISCOVERING World History. 2003. The 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary Web. The Web.
However, the atoms are arranged a little differently. Two molecules that have this type of relationship are called isomers.
This showed that dissolved gases were mechanically mixed with the water and weren?t mixed naturally. But in 1803 it was found that this depended on the weight of the individual particles of the gas or atoms. By assuming the particles were the same size, Dalton was able to develop the idea of atomic weights. In 1803 this theory was finalised and stated that (1) all matter is made up of the smallest possible particles termed atoms, (2) atoms of a given element have unique characteristics and weight, and (3) three types of atoms exist: simple (elements), compound (simple molecules), and complex (complex molecules).
Members of a superfamily differ from member of a family. The term family is used to describe receptors that are similar in structure as they are coded for by similar genes, whereas superfamilies are different from each other in structure and function, but evolves from a common ancestor, thus they mu...
Throughout history, the curiosities of obtaining knowledge of facts that show the operation of general laws have resulted into the improvements of today’s society. Such curiosity of chemical reactions coiled in the minds of John Dalton in the atomic theory, Rosalind Franklin with genetics, and most importantly Antoine Lavoisier the father of modern chemistry. All who, worked extensively to acquire the understanding that fascinated them most, chemistry. Another chemist who sought after the same knowledge was Stanislao Cannizzaro. Studying organic chemistry Cannizzaro explained how certain elements lacked the hydrogen atom in what is know n as the Cannizzaro Reaction.
3. Corey, E. J., Barbara Czako, and Laszlo Kurti. Molecules and medicine. New Jersey: John
1. J R Partington, A history of chemistry, volume 3 . London, UK: Macmillan, 1962
Things are very different from each other, and can be broken down into small groups inside itself, which was then noticed early by people, and Greek thinkers, about 400BC. Which just happened to use words like "element', and `atom' to describe the many different parts and even the smallest parts of matter. These ideas were around for over 2000 years while ideas such as `Elements' of Earth, Fire, Air, and Water to explain `world stuff' came and went. Much later, Boyle, an experimenter like Galileo and Bacon, was influenced much by Democritus, Gassendi, and Descartes, which lent much important weight to the atomic theory of matter in the 1600s. Although it was Lavoisier who had divided the very few elements known in the 1700's into four different classes, and then John Dalton made atoms even more believable, telling everyone that the mass of an atom was it's most important property. Then in the early 1800's Dobereiner noted that the similar elements often had relative atomic masses, and DeChancourtois made a cylindrical table of elements to display the periodic reoccurrence of properties. Cannizaro then determined atomic weights for the 60 or so elements known in the 1860s, and then a table was arranged by Newlands, with the many elements given a serial number in order of their atomic weights, of course beginning with Hydrogen. That made it clear that "the eighth element, starting from a given one, is a kind of a repeat of the first", which Newlands called the Law of Octaves.
In other words, the definition of something chemical related may not have the same meaning when defining it in physical or biological terms. This shows that biology is not comparable to physics and chemistry as their definitions, languages, etc. do not match up. Such an overlap would cause the field of sciences to become virtually dysfunctional because nothing would be clear – there would be constant confusion,
Critical Thinking Review of Organic Chemistry Organic chemistry is a creative science entailing the study of the structure, the properties, reactions and preparations of compounds containing carbon, the hydrocarbons and compounds with elements such as nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, halogens, sulfur, phosphorus and silicon. Organic chemistry deals with compounds produced by living organisms and also incorporate into it the human-made substances such as plastics. Studying organic chemistry enhances a better understanding of the behavior of natural and synthetic materials and aid in the discovery of new elements that will be of great help to the coming generations in supplying their needs and in dealing with their problems. Organic compounds play
My interest is Pharmacology has grown considerably since I read and researched the work of James. W.Black and his discovery of the drug named ‘Propranolol’. I learned that the drug is still a major part of medicine today especially in cardiovascular diseases e.g. hypertension and protecting the heart further in those who have angina or have had a heart attack previously. From learning about this, I realised that discovering one drug can have a major impact on the world of medicine. During my AS Chemistry course, I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the ‘Instrumental Analysis’ topic and using mass spectra and IR spectra to identify chemical structure.
Isomers are molecules which have an identical atomic composition but differ in their spatial or bonding arrangements 5. Isomers can be further divided up into constitutional (structural) isomers and stereoisomers (spatial isomers) 3. An example of structural isomers are ethanol and dimethyl ether. Both these chemicals have the molecular formula C2H6O but differ in their chemical structures. Ethanol has the chemical structure CH3¬CH2OH while dimethyl ether has the chemical structure CH3OCH3. These two compounds have completely different physical and chemical properties and are therefore easily identified and separated 6. Another example of structural isomers are catechol, resorcinol and hydroquinone which all have the same molecular formula C6H6O2 but different bonding arrangement of their atoms5. Stereoisomers are of importance in API synthesis because they are not as readily identifiable as structural isomers and therefore require a more in depth analysis of the drug molecule or substance. Stereoisomers can be further subdivided into two different categories; configurational isomers which includes geometric isomers and optical isomers, and conformational
Molecular pharmacology deals with the biochemical and biophysical characteristics of interactions between molecules of different substances and those of the cell. In other words, it is molecular biology applied to pharmacologic and toxicologic questions. The methods of molecular pharmacology include precise mathematical, physical, chemical and molecular biological techniques to understand how cells respond to hormones or pharmacologic agents, and how chemical structure correlates with biological activity of various
Dalton’s idea is that all things are made of small bits of matter, these bits of matter where too small to be seen even with a microscope. Scientists began to think these small bits of matter were responsible for chemical changes. They thought that when these bits of matter combined, a chemical change took place. Dalton assumed that there was a special pattern in the elements and was partly responsible for the periodic table. Dalton in 1787 started to keep a journal.