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Quiz about The Chemistry of Living
Quiz about The Chemistry of Living

The Chemistry of Living Trivia Quiz


Every day, you do chemistry and you don't even know it! This quiz is all about the chemistry that goes on inside our bodies, our very own portable chemistry labs.

A multiple-choice quiz by NatalieW. Estimated time: 5 mins.
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Author
NatalieW
Time
5 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
158,683
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
7 / 10
Plays
6609
Awards
Top 20% Quiz
Last 3 plays: batowers (5/10), Guest 68 (9/10), Guest 136 (6/10).
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Question 1 of 10
1. Just about everyone has heard of haemoglobin, which is the compound in our blood that makes it red. What is the "haeme" portion of the molecule best described as? Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is the molecule that carries our genetic code. In 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick proposed that DNA's structure is that of a double helix. What is the form of bonding that enables this double helix to be formed? Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. Enzymes are biomolecules that enable the body to perform reactions that chemists can also do in the lab. However, the body has to do without heating mantles and reagents such as organic solvents and sodium hydroxide! This means that enzymes are remarkable biological catalysts, carrying out chemical reactions at physiological temperature and pH. A subclass of enzyme is the lipases. What kind of chemical reaction do lipases catalyse? Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. Proteins are biological polymers that play all sorts of roles within our bodies. Haemoglobin is a protein, as are insulin and keratin. What is the general building block common to all proteins? Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. We know that we need certain vitamins to stay healthy. Each vitamin has its own special role to play within our bodies to make sure they function as they should. Beta-carotene, the pigment that gives carrots their orange colour, is an important source of which vitamin that helps us see? Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. Our stomach plays an important part in the digestion process. What is the name of the acid present in our stomach used for digestion? Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. The digestive process breaks down food into small molecules. Carbohydrates are broken down into glucose and other sugars, which are in turn degraded further in preparation for entry into the citric acid cycle. The citric acid cycle produces energy and what gas? Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. If you happen to ingest a small amount of something toxic, which of the following is the most likely way your body will try to reduce its toxic effect on you? Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. Prostaglandins are biosynthesised in our bodies from arachidonic acid, a fatty acid (a fatty acid is a carboxylic acid featuring a long carbon chain). Which of the following is true of prostaglandins? Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. I've already mentioned proteins in this quiz as being biological polymers. Protein molecules are extremely large and as a consequence need more to hold them in a particular shape than just the bonds between the subunits. This is often accomplished by forming a special kind of bridge using two atoms of which element? Hint



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Most Recent Scores
Oct 28 2024 : batowers: 5/10
Oct 26 2024 : Guest 68: 9/10
Oct 24 2024 : Guest 136: 6/10
Oct 12 2024 : Quizaddict1: 6/10
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Sep 19 2024 : Nhoj_too: 9/10
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Score Distribution

quiz
Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. Just about everyone has heard of haemoglobin, which is the compound in our blood that makes it red. What is the "haeme" portion of the molecule best described as?

Answer: a metal complex

Haemoglobin is red in colour because of the iron complexed in the molecule. The iron is at the centre of a porphyrin ring, which is made up of nitrogen-containing rings joined together to make one big heterocyclic structure (a heterocycle is a molecule containing rings of carbon atoms plus other atoms such as nitrogen and/or oxygen).

The iron is complexed via the nitrogen atoms' lone electron pairs. Haemoglobin is vital for transporting oxygen around the body. Arterial blood is bright red in colour because of the oxygen coordinated to haemoglobin; when the oxygen is removed, water takes its place and venous blood changes colour to a dark purplish red.
2. DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is the molecule that carries our genetic code. In 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick proposed that DNA's structure is that of a double helix. What is the form of bonding that enables this double helix to be formed?

Answer: hydrogen bonding

Hydrogen bonding is the strongest intermolecular force and occurs between electronegative atoms bearing lone pairs of electrons (such as nitrogen and oxygen) and hydrogen atoms attached to another electronegative atom. The phosphate-sugar backbone of each strand of DNA has a series of heterocyclic bases attached to it.

These bases contain nitrogen atoms that enable the complementary strands to hydrogen bond to each other, thus forming the double helix that we all recognise as DNA.
3. Enzymes are biomolecules that enable the body to perform reactions that chemists can also do in the lab. However, the body has to do without heating mantles and reagents such as organic solvents and sodium hydroxide! This means that enzymes are remarkable biological catalysts, carrying out chemical reactions at physiological temperature and pH. A subclass of enzyme is the lipases. What kind of chemical reaction do lipases catalyse?

Answer: hydrolysis of an ester group

Lipases catalyse the hydrolysis of ester (RCOOR) groups as part of their role in the digestion of fats. Hydrolysis of esters is often carried out in the lab using aqueous sodium hydroxide (NaOH) at reflux - not an option in our bodies! Other types of enzymes include decarboxylases (catalysing the loss of carbon dioxide), dehydrases (catalysing the loss of water) and dehydrogenases (catalysing the loss of hydrogen and the formation of a double bond).
4. Proteins are biological polymers that play all sorts of roles within our bodies. Haemoglobin is a protein, as are insulin and keratin. What is the general building block common to all proteins?

Answer: amino acids

Proteins are made up of different amino acids (there are 20 common amino acids) joined together. Amino acids contain both an amine (-NH2) group and a carboxylic acid (RCOOH) in the same molecule. They join together through the amine group of one molecule reacting with the carboxylic acid portion of another.

This makes a new functional group generally called an amide, but when the end product is a protein, this new link is called a peptide bond. As mentioned in question 1, haemoglobin is involved in transporting oxygen around the body.

Insulin is the hormone responsible for controlling glucose metabolism and keratin is found in wool, feathers, hooves, silk and fingernails.
5. We know that we need certain vitamins to stay healthy. Each vitamin has its own special role to play within our bodies to make sure they function as they should. Beta-carotene, the pigment that gives carrots their orange colour, is an important source of which vitamin that helps us see?

Answer: Vitamin A

Beta-carotene (see my earlier quiz, "The Very Colourful Chemistry Quiz") is an orange pigment found in both carrots and orange skins. Vitamin A is synthesised in our bodies from beta-carotene by cleavage of the latter through a carbon-carbon double bond.

This cleavage is accomplished by enzymes in the liver, with one molecule of beta-carotene giving two molecules of Vitamin A. Vitamin A is then further converted to produce cis-retinal, which is the light-sensitive pigment on which our visual system is based. Cis-retinal then combines with a protein called opsin to produce rhodopsin.

When light strikes rhodopsin, it isomerises (changes the orientation of some of its atoms); this isomerisation is the trigger for a nerve impulse to the brain.
6. Our stomach plays an important part in the digestion process. What is the name of the acid present in our stomach used for digestion?

Answer: hydrochloric acid

The stomach contains hydrochloric acid (HCl), which helps break down food. The pH (a measure of the acidity of a particular solution - a pH of 7 is neutral; lower than 7 is acidic and higher than 7 is basic) of the digestive fluid in our stomach is around 1.0-2.0 (concentrated hydrochloric acid has a pH of approximately -1, while the average soft drink has a pH of around 3.0).

The enzyme pepsin, which is one of the enzymes responsible for digestion, requires this highly acidic environment in order to be active. Our stomach lining is protected from the acidity of the gastric fluid by a layer of mucous. If this mucous layer is damaged or worn away, then the acidic gastric fluid can eat away at the stomach lining, causing ulcers.
7. The digestive process breaks down food into small molecules. Carbohydrates are broken down into glucose and other sugars, which are in turn degraded further in preparation for entry into the citric acid cycle. The citric acid cycle produces energy and what gas?

Answer: carbon dioxide

One of the waste products of our digestive process is carbon dioxide (CO2), which is exhaled through the lungs. The citric acid cycle is also known as the Krebs cycle, named after Hans Krebs, who elucidated the process in 1937. The energy produced in the citric acid cycle is then used in the electron transport chain, which produces molecules of ATP (adenosine triphosphate).

The use and production of energy in living things revolves around the interconversion of ATP to ADP (adenosine diphosphate) and the reverse.
8. If you happen to ingest a small amount of something toxic, which of the following is the most likely way your body will try to reduce its toxic effect on you?

Answer: It will oxidise the toxic substance.

Oxidation is pretty much what its name sounds like - one definition is the addition of oxygen atoms to a molecule. The body contains enzymes, such as cytochrome P-450, capable of oxidising toxic substances. It seems that, in general, the more oxygen atoms a molecule contains in comparison to its original structure, the less toxic it is to us.

A good example of this is the relative toxicity of benzene and toluene. Both have similar structures - benzene is a ring of 6 carbon atoms containing alternating single and double bonds; toluene is just a benzene ring with a methyl (-CH3) group attached to it.

However, the benzene ring is resistant to oxidation, causing benzene to be much more toxic than toluene, whose methyl group is oxidised much more rapidly than the benzene ring, allowing it to be excreted more quickly.
9. Prostaglandins are biosynthesised in our bodies from arachidonic acid, a fatty acid (a fatty acid is a carboxylic acid featuring a long carbon chain). Which of the following is true of prostaglandins?

Answer: All of these.

The name "prostaglandin" derives from the fact that these compounds were first isolated from a sheep's prostate gland. It is now known that they are present, albeit in small amounts, in all tissues in the body. There are several dozen known prostaglandins, and their effects are wide-ranging - from lowering blood pressure to affecting blood-platelet aggregation during blood clotting, from affecting kidney function to controlling inflammation. Prostaglandins are synthesised from arachidonic acid in two steps using a cyclooxygenase (COX) enzyme.

The pain relief you get from taking an aspirin or any other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug is from the drug blocking the COX enzyme from making prostaglandins, which results in a decreased response by the body to inflammation.
10. I've already mentioned proteins in this quiz as being biological polymers. Protein molecules are extremely large and as a consequence need more to hold them in a particular shape than just the bonds between the subunits. This is often accomplished by forming a special kind of bridge using two atoms of which element?

Answer: sulphur

Proteins are usually said to have primary, secondary, tertiary and even quaternary structures. The primary structure is simply the amino acid sequence, the secondary structure is how certain sections of amino acids arrange themselves, the tertiary structure is how the whole protein molecule arranges itself to form a 3-dimensional structure and the quaternary structure describes how different protein molecules aggregate together to form other structures. Sulphur plays an important part in a protein's tertiary structure by being able to form disulphide (S-S) bonds.

The amino acid cysteine contains a sulphur atom, so any protein featuring this amino acid has the potential to make disulphide bridges in its tertiary structure provided the cysteine units are oriented correctly.

As an aside, disulphide bonds are what make vulcanised rubber (used in tyres) stronger and more durable than unvulcanised rubber. Thanks for playing this quiz; I hope you enjoyed it.
Source: Author NatalieW

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor crisw before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.
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This quiz is part of series Chemistry in the Real World!:

I've chosen these quizzes as they deal with how chemistry impacts on our everyday lives rather than as some esoteric laboratory subject!

  1. Acids, Salts and Alkalis in Disguise Average
  2. The Very Useful Chemistry Quiz Average
  3. What Difference Does it Make? Easier
  4. The Chemistry of Living Average
  5. The Uses of Various Chemical Substances Average

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