What knowledge have you connected with past knowledge?

Since our last connecting knowledge blog, we have touched upon many things in class that most of us probably have had some sort of understanding of from previously taken classes. For example, in chapter 6 we talked about proteins as enzymes. Many of us have probably gone over the basics of enzymes in almost every science class we have taken. I learned about enzymes in general biology and learned about rate of reactions and thermodynamics in anatomy and a little bit in organic chemistry as well. I had already learned about exergonic/spontaneous and endergonic/nonspontaneous reactions as well as catalysis.

We covered catalysis in some detail in my anatomy course as we discussed the fact that our bodies cannot possibly survive without the use of catalysts. The reactions that happen in our body are far too slow on their own to sustain life, but with the use of catalysts the reactions become fast enough for us to live. I also learned about rates of reactions a lot in organic chemistry. We learned about reaction orders in organic as well.

I learned a little bit about lipids in my anatomy class including fatty acids and phospholipids. Hydrogenation was learned about in organic chemistry, which we now can connect more clearly with biology, as hydrogenated foods enter and affect our body. When talking about fatty acids and their carboxyl group being at the polar end and the hydrocarbon chain being at the nonpolar tail, that incorporates knowledge learned both in anatomy and organic chemistry. I learned about carboxyl groups and hydrocarbons in organic chemistry and polar and nonpolar ends in both organic and anatomy. I knew that molecules with double bonds were considered unsaturated, while molecules with single bonds were considered saturated from organic chemistry. I learned about phospholipids in anatomy and how they are used in our body. Waxes I learned a little bit about in general biology when talking about the waxes on plant leaves and stems. The waxes are used for plant protection as a type of skin.

I learned about peripheral, integral and transmembrane proteins in anatomy as well as passive (simple and facilitated) and active (primary and secondary) diffusion. The sodium potassium pump was covered extensively in anatomy. I'm sure we all knew the basics of DNA while coming into this class and I know that some of my classes have covered it fairly well, but there was still a lot that I had forgotten or just had never learned. Learning about eukaryotic versus prokaryotic DNA processes was new to me. I also knew the basics of transcription and translation from previous science classes (anatomy and general biology), but definitely needed to be taught again. I did not remember a lot of the differences and had never learned the prokaryotic and eukaryotic differences. I learned about codons previously but went into much more detail on both transcription and translation in this course than I ever have before.

As we get into metabolism, I have learned about catabolism and anabolism in anatomy and redox reactions in organic chemistry. We went through Glycolysis and the Krebs Cycle in anatomy, but I could use a refresher on those. I am getting more interested in the metabolism section because that seems to be the most interesting to me so far this semester. I have a basis of understanding some things that we will go over, so I am looking forward to going over those areas again. Once again I am able to see so many different science classes all interconnected and brought into one class.