The Incredible Journey: A Visualization Exercise for Biochemistry
... you are suddenly up-ended and are carried along in a sea of water molecules ar almost unbeliable speed
23. Complete the narrative by inserting the missing words in the answer blanks
For this journey, you are miniaturized to the size of a very small molecule by colleagues who will remain in contact with you by radio. Your instructions are to play the role of a water molecule and to record any reactions that involve water molecules. Since water molecules are polar molecules, you are outfitted with an insulated rubber wet suit with one (1) charge at your helmet and two (2) charges, one at the end of each leg.
As soon as you are injected into your host's bloodstream, you feel as though you are being pulled apart. Some large, attractive forces are pulling at your legs from different directions! You look about but can see only water molecules. After a moment's thought, you remember the polar nature of your wet suit. You record that these forces must be the (3) in water that are easily formed and easily broken.
After this initial surprise, you are suddenly up-ended and carried along in a sea of water molecules at almost unbelievable speed. You have just begun to observe some huge, red, disk-shaped structures (probably taking up O molecules, when you are swept into a very turbulent environment. Your colleagues radio that you are in the small intestine. With difficulty, because of numerous collisions with other molecules, you begin to record the various types of molecules you see.
In particular, you notice a very long helical molecule made of units with distinctive R-groups. You identify and record this type of molecule as a _(5), made of units called that are joined together by (7) bonds. As you move too close to the helix during your observations, you are nearly pulled apart to form two ions, (8), but you breathe a sigh of relief as two ions of another water molecule take your place. You watch as these two ions move between two units of the long helical molecule. Then, in a fraction of a second, the bond between the two units is broken. As you record the occurrence of this chemical reaction, called 9 . you are jolted into another direction by an enormous globular protein, the very same (10) that controls and speeds up this chemical reaction.
Once again you find yourself in the bloodstream, heading into an organ identified by your colleagues as the liver. Inside a liver cell, you observe many small monomers, made up only of H, and O atoms. You identify these units as (11) molecules because the liver cells are bonding them together to form very long, branched polymers called (12) .
