Mendel and Biological Energy

Reading Assignment

Read about Brother Gregory, contaminated wine and the nature of energy. Find out how Brother Gregory and his friends discovered the reason wine becomes sour and how this leads to a discussion of the nature of energy and biological energy.

Once again, begin by reading the fictionalized story and find the main characters. Later re-read this material and follow the hyperlinks in the text that lead to the various scientific principles concerning work, force, energy, types of energy and energy interconversions.

2) WWW: Science at a Distance: Topics in Biological Energy.

First "Assignment Questions":

1. Who were the major scientists who discovered and explained the nature of energy?
   (write about four paragraphs).

2. What is the relationship between work and force?
   

3. What is entropy? Give your reasons.
   

4. Explain how energy is measured. What was Brother Matthew's new unit of energy measure? Could it have been used in scientific investigations?

5. Why would Brother Gregory have problems with the comparison between mechanical energy and biological energy? Explain the relationship.

   (You should create a word processor document of your answers to the assigned questions. Then (a) post the resulting document on the appropriate page of the newsgroup (if required), and (b) keep it safe for possible inclusion in your portfolio.)

2) Here is your next research assignment from Brother Gregory.

To his amazement he found that, even though there were no living yeast present, the cellular extract still had some of the properties he had previously seen in the bubbling grape juice.

For example, living yeast ferment and break down sugar molecules. It looked to Brother Gregory that the yeasts were using the sugar for energy and for the building materials necessary for growth. These would normally be properties found only in living organisms.

But, when tested, Brother Gregory's cell-free extracts also chemically broke down the sugars, even though all the yeast organisms were dead. What was going on?

Something "in yeast" was helping in the break down of the sugars. These "in yeast", or En-zyme, substances have some interesting properties that Brother Gregory wants you to investigate.

He wants you to investigate the effect of sugar concentration (the substrate), temperature and pH on the activities of these "Enzymes".

To do this you must visit the Bio-Laboratory Module that investigates the properties of Enzymes. Follow the directions, carry out the research, and put all the results into a portfolio for grading.

You should put into your portfolio:

1. An introduction that gives the background to the study of catalysts and enzymes.
2. A series of tables and graphs (at least six) that you have generated using the bio-simulation of the properties of enzymes. Follow the directions given in this module.
3. A description of each set of results (and graphs), an explanation of what you think is happening and what the graphs or the results show.
4. A conclusion to the report that summarizes what you found, and what can be concluded about the properties of enzymes as biological catalysts.

Second "Assignment Questions":

1. What is the difference between a spontaneous and a nonspontaneous chemical reaction? Give examples.

2. Explain why catalysts can increase the rate of a spontaneous chemical reaction, but, on their own, cannot effect a nonspontaneous chemical reaction.

3. In what ways are enzymes similar to inorganic catalysts and in what ways are they different? Give examples.

4. What is metabolic pathway?

5. What role do metabolic pathways play in the lives of a cell?