Blogging Challenge Inverted (1)

I know, I know—the challenge is supposed to be about getting more senior people into blogging but I turned it on its end and set a mini-challenge of my own to my new batch of Biochemistry undergraduate tutees. I asked them to write no more that 400 words on any topic from the course that had particularly grabbed them. Provoked by the conference session on blogging in education, I tried to tap in to the zeitgeist, and told them to write their piece in the style of a blog.

And I was astounded by some of the responses that I got. Two in particular I thought were worthy of wider dissemination so I asked the students if they’d like to guest on my blog. Happily both agreed so here below ladies and gents, for you delectation, amusement and education, is the first from Yvonne Liu, who wrote about the lectures I gave on thermodynamics…

The second will appear early next week. I encouraged both students to sign up to the network so they may be brave enough to respond to any comments!

Turning up the heat on thermodynamics
Yvonne Liu

7 lectures and 4 pages full of mathematical equations has made me realize the extent of complexity of thermodynamics in living systems. The thermodynamics I learnt in high school was part of Chemistry, and to summarize succinctly (maybe a bit too succinctly) consists of the equation: ΔG = ΔH – TΔS. And that was that. As long as you knew how to put in the numbers and convert the units, thermodynamics was a breeze.

However, after sitting through 7 hours of thermodynamics in college, I realized biological systems never operate in such a manner because it is by definition an open system and open systems allow for interactions between the system and the surroundings. This makes calculations a pain in the neck as there are now so many more factors to take into consideration. The good thing however is that in biological systems temperature and pressure are almost always constant, which eliminates 2 variables from the string on considerations we have to look at.

Not only is the multitude of factors a cause of complication in thermodynamics, there is a different equation for every different scenarios – from ligand binding to ion transport to redox reactions. This means that the one equation I learnt in thermodynamics in high school has just burgeoned into 4 or 5 different ones, posing a serious problem to the lack of space in my memory drawer.

So thermodynamics is seriously proving to be a painful subject, what with the mountainous amount of math (complete with a plethora of inexplicable symbols) and the many different formulas for different scenarios. Yet it is so amazingly universal. “Every single reaction will proceed if there is a decrease in free energy” basically sums up the whole of life’s processes. The power of predicting the direction of all chemical reactions with one equation (granted there are many variants, but all of them stem from the same concept) is startling. On top of that, it explains why we can survive when almost every chemical reaction in our body is thermodynamically unfavorable. The process of energy coupling makes life itself possible!

As much as I would love to exclaim with vehemence my hatred for thermodynamics, I cannot help but appreciate it’s value and beauty in science and in life.