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Author
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Topic: There's a biology quiz tomorrow
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GrumpySteen
Solid Nitrozanium SuperFan
Member # 170
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posted December 14, 2009 15:02
It should be easy. You just have to memorize one chart and you'll be able to get a perfect score.
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Worst. Celibate. Ever.
Posts: 6290 | From: Tennessee | Registered: Jan 2000
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Xanthine
Solid Nitrozanium SuperFan!
Member # 736
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posted December 14, 2009 18:03
ROTFSMPL!!!!!!!!!!
It's not that bad. I promise. I highly doubt you're expected to do more than burn glucose to pyruvate, run it around the TCA cycle a couple times and then pretend you're an amino acid and cruise through the urea cycle. Chase that down with some gluconeogenesis and fatty acid metabolism and follow it with oxidative phosphorylation and that's about half of undergrad biochem.
Oh yeah, and you should know how those pathways are controlled, and what feeds into what, and why certain amino acids are called "essential". And really, all that's just the bare bones of that chart.
Also bear in mind that aside from core glucose metabolism, the pathways vary between and within the three domains. For instance, fish do not make urea. They just excrete ammonia. And birds kick urea through another step to make uric acid. And unlike bacteria, humans do not make vitamin B12.
And no, most biochemists are not as crazy as I am - I'm one of the saner ones.
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And it's one, two, three / On the wrong side of the lee / What were you meant for? / What were you meant for?
- The Decemberists
Posts: 7665 | From: the lab | Registered: Mar 2001
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SpazGirl
Assimilated
Member # 4915
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posted December 14, 2009 19:19
You laugh, but I have that chart on my wall, mainly to scare the roommates, but it's there. Xan, friends of mine and I have a choreographed dance that we did for extra credit, bio majors have never had more fun with those $2.99 colored balls from the local superstore (Meijer for those of you in the mid-west).
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Things, and things.
Posts: 465 | From: Ypsilanti, MI | Registered: Feb 2006
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Xanthine
Solid Nitrozanium SuperFan!
Member # 736
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posted December 14, 2009 19:27
I laugh only because I've been there, SpazGirl. I got my ass piled higher and deeper in biochemistry. I've even had to turn around and teach this shit. And now I'm in a physics lab. ![[crazy]](graemlins/crazy.gif)
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And it's one, two, three / On the wrong side of the lee / What were you meant for? / What were you meant for?
- The Decemberists
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SpazGirl
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posted December 14, 2009 22:14
I honestly can't wait to start doing field biology. I've spent too much time cooped up in labs lately, I miss being outside! However, one last lab class I am looking forward to is scanning electron microscopy. I'm still not sure how I made it into the class of eight that get to take it, but I did.
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Things, and things.
Posts: 465 | From: Ypsilanti, MI | Registered: Feb 2006
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bull3t
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posted December 15, 2009 06:06
That shit is ridiculous! I smoked entirely too much reefer before I joined to ever memorize even a fraction of that. Bah.
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GC's Mosthated.
"I don’t care if people hate my guts; I assume most of them do. The important question is whether they are in a position to do anything about it." -William S Burroughs
Posts: 435 | From: Ogden, UT | Registered: Aug 2001
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GrumpySteen
Solid Nitrozanium SuperFan
Member # 170
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posted December 15, 2009 08:05
Maybe I'm just weird, but when I see a diagram like that, it doesn't scare me. It just makes me want to pick up a book and start reading until I understand it all.
Biochem is far, far away from my areas of expertise, but still... I kinda want the poster.
This is closer to what I'm familiar with, but it's not as interesting since I understand most of what's on it (plus, bits of it aren't quite right and some things are missing).
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Worst. Celibate. Ever.
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Ashitaka
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Member # 4924
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posted December 15, 2009 09:48
I remember a biochem final. Our proffessor handed each of the four of us (private university) a blank piece of paper and said, draw the Krebs Cycle", complete as possible with known intermediates and all products. " An "A" for the most detailed, a "B" for second most, and so on.
I go the "D".
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"If they're not gonna make a distinction between Muslims and violent extremists, then why should I take the time to distinguish between decent, fearful white people and racists?"
-Assif Mandvi
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Xanthine
Solid Nitrozanium SuperFan!
Member # 736
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posted December 15, 2009 15:28
I can't say I remember too much about what was on any particular biochem final. However, I recall the final for the undergrad biochem course (200-level) was held in a nice classroom in the medical school. Almost all the junior bio majors, whatever their sub-specialty, had 3 finals in a 36 hour period. What the finals were varied, but the net effect was the same and I remember a group of us standing in a hallway, staring at each other and wanting to cry. Anyway a bunch of us decided it would be a good idea, since we were already up all night and all, to go over to the med center and find the room and camp out in there in the hour or so before the test started. These decisions were made independently. We trickled in, one by one, or in pairs and trios. Some studied, some napped, I think I oscillated between staring vacantly at my notes and vacantly into space (there's a point at which studying is useless but relaxing is impossible). I can't remember how I did, but I aced the course so if I did screw up I didn't screw up badly.
Steen, I understand...a map like that is what sent me into biochemistry in the first place. ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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And it's one, two, three / On the wrong side of the lee / What were you meant for? / What were you meant for?
- The Decemberists
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