Organic Biochem&cdr: Connecting Chemistry to Your Life

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Dear Reader Every living cell in the tissue of every living organism can be thought of as a microscopic or miniature polymers reactor. And nobody understands how to make a polymer better than George Odian.( I was first introduced to the name George Odian by one of my polymers and cotaings instructors at N.D.S.U. way back in 1981. His name is J. Edward Glass and he is one of the world's foremost experts in the field of extentional viscosity of high polymers) From my experience reading George Odian's books on Chemistry has been a welcome relief from having suffered from a diet of bad chemistry books and bad chemistry teachers and professors. I am not a Chemistry major (that's no surprise) and for years literally suffered from a fear of Chemistry. These of course are personal comments but the fact remains that it was while reading another book by Odian and Blei that actually helped me overcome my strange aversion to this subject called Chemistry. Which really is simply another form of "Quantum Mechanics". But they ( the academics )never taught it like that because they didn't see it for its true nature.( Schrodinger on the other hand did see it) Rather it seemed as though they( some of these other "teachers") succeeded in confounding it by trying to incorporate all kinds of "bonding" and "anti-bonding" rules. Blei and Odian don't "beat the student up" with that. Rather they simply use the celebrated "Octet Rule" so that the student won't have to get bogged down with details that can be learned later and thus the student has more time to concentrate on the organic chemistry at hand and the relationships between the various organic groups and their resulting effect on the biopolymers. Namely the Nucleaic Acids, Carbohydrates, Lipids, and of course the Proteins. However when I say "bringing objectivity and accuracy to the life sciences" I am talking about viewing the inner workings of a living cell in terms of what it actually is. A polymers reactor. And not to see that is not only an impediment to the advancement of medical science but a misrepresentation of what life really is. In this book the basis is laid out for what is surely to come in the future. And that is the complete characterization of tissues in terms of their basic polymeric properties. For example "molecular weight"...now we're not just talking chemistry we're talking Physical Chemistry. And if one fails to see that one misses the "whole show". The idea that DNA talks to the RNA (by way of the genetic code) which in turn polymerizes protein cannot be overemphasized.(see the Central Dogma of Biology) (also see "What is Life?" by Erwin Schrodinger 1944) The fact that you have a person like Odian writng a book like this is simply an indicator of what is to soon be the future. Where we human beings can arbitrarily control and modulate the polymerizations inside ourselves. What do you call that? "Brave New World" or "No Such Thing as Terminal-The Fountain of Youth"? Best Regards

I read this and understand it, which is a miracle for textbooks ESPECIALLY CHEM! ;-) It's geared mainly for people entering allied health professions, which I am not (music/botany nerd here, folks), but it's still interesting to know why all the stuff in our bodies happens. I actually had fun reading the Lipid chapter and thanks to it I was able to pose for a portrait without getting bored. :-)