Tuesday, January 26, 2010

What is Biochemistry and how does it differ from the fields of genetics, biology, chemistry, and molecular biology?

Biochemistry is the study of organisms through the methods of chemistry. Biochemistry is able to use results from many different sciences to answer questions about the molecular nature of life processes. For example, in the medical field, a more advanced knowledge of health and disease at the molecular level helps to figure out cures and treatments for disease and illness. Biochemstry uses pieces from different sciences. It uses pieces from chemistry, more specifically organic chemistry, when talking about bonding and different functional groups. While organic chemistry concentrates on carbon and has many different functional groups. In Biochemistry, some functional groups are left out because they are not applied, such as alkyl halides and acyl chlorides. Genetics is touched upon in Biochemistry, but it is considered a field of its own because of its complexity. Biology is a larger, more broad subject, and its main objectives and pieces are used within Biochemistry. Molecular Biology is touched upon in Biochemistry as well, but is a much more complex topic to nt have its own field. Biochemistry combines many different sciences and shows how they all relate to one another.