The chemistry that living systems run on — proteins, nucleic acids, membranes and the metabolic pathways that power all of it.
10 topics · 10 curated works
No prior grounding assumed.
Biochemistry Free For All
Kevin Ahern, Indira Rajagopal & Taralyn Tan · 2016
A free introductory biochemistry textbook covering protein structure, enzyme catalysis and metabolism, written to replace an expensive commercial…
Assumes you know the vocabulary.
Syntheses in the Purine and Sugar Group
Emil Fischer · 1902
Reports the systematic synthesis and stereochemical assignment of the sugars, establishing the configurational relationships still used to name them.
Primary sources and full treatments.
Die Kinetik der Invertinwirkung
Leonor Michaelis & Maud L. Menten · 1913
Derives a rate equation for enzyme-catalysed reactions from a two-step binding-then-conversion mechanism, giving the saturation kinetics that still…
+7 more at this level
10 works
Kevin Ahern, Indira Rajagopal & Taralyn Tan
A free introductory biochemistry textbook covering protein structure, enzyme catalysis and metabolism, written to replace an expensive commercial text rather than supplement it.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Emil Fischer
Reports the systematic synthesis and stereochemical assignment of the sugars, establishing the configurational relationships still used to name them.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Leonor Michaelis & Maud L. Menten
Derives a rate equation for enzyme-catalysed reactions from a two-step binding-then-conversion mechanism, giving the saturation kinetics that still describes most enzymes.
link failing as of 17 Sept 2026Linus Pauling & Robert B. Corey
Predicts, from bond geometry and hydrogen-bonding rules alone, the alpha helix as a stable repeating protein conformation, before any protein structure had been solved by crystallography.
link checked 17 Sept 2026James D. Watson & Francis H. C. Crick
Proposes a double helix held together by specific base pairing, a structure that immediately suggested how genetic information could be copied.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Fritz Lipmann
Recounts discovering coenzyme A as the carrier that activates acetyl groups for transfer, identifying the single chemical step that links carbohydrate, fat and protein breakdown into one common metabolic pathway.
link checked 17 Sept 2026John C. Kendrew
Reports the first atomic-resolution structure of a protein, solved by X-ray crystallography using isomorphous replacement with heavy atoms to overcome the phase problem.
link checked 17 Sept 2026S. J. Singer & G. L. Nicolson
Models the cell membrane as a two-dimensional fluid in which proteins float and diffuse within a lipid bilayer, replacing earlier static sandwich models.
Peter Mitchell
Argues that cells make ATP by pumping protons across a membrane to build an electrochemical gradient, then letting them flow back through an enzyme that couples the flow to phosphorylation.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Edwin G. Krebs
Shows that reversibly attaching a phosphate group to a protein switches its activity on or off, giving cells a fast, general mechanism for regulating enzymes in response to signals.
link checked 17 Sept 2026This subject genuinely sits in more than one domain. These fields approach the same ground with different methods.