Chemistry Review Kit (AP Bio)

“Only under the right conditions does nature produce methane hydrates, fuel trapped in ice crystals. [T]he environment must be extremely cold and wet, and under relatively high pressure. And there must be methane. The simplest, and most purely refined hydrocarbon, methane consists of one carbon atom surrounded by four hydrogen atoms. The methane is formed when organic material is broken down, either by heat or by microbes, in an oxygen-poor environment.”–Via

Welcome to a new school year.

This first post will account for introductory concepts for Chemistry, the natural science that studies matter. Any proper Bio course has to discuss Chemistry; we are living beings made out of star stuff, aware of what makes us, so let’s see what important topics from Chemistry we need to understand what makes us alive.

Two Youtube Channels will be very important throughout the school year: Crash Course and Khan Academy. For this our introduction to Bio, we’ll use Crash Course Chemistry. If we want to understand what makes the physical world possible, we need to consider the science that studies the nature of matter. The following videos will show you what Chemistry is all about. Very simply put, Chemistry is the story of how protons, electrons and neutrons came together to make everything–stars, bacteria, gold–possible:

Now that you’ve watched these videos, which account for a very brief summary of what chemistry is, we can now discuss what probably is the most important chemical compound for life in our planet: water. The following videos describe how important water is. We’ve already discussed in class the properties of water; but these properties owe their existence to the chemical configuration of this unique molecule, made out of very simple and abundant elements:

8 thoughts on “Chemistry Review Kit (AP Bio)

  1. Chemistry is important for the survival for any form of life. It gives us the story, or background, and the tools for us to progress and create. Without chemistry we could not understand diseases and find its cure or make a medicine for it. We are all surrounded by chemistry in our daily lives.

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  2. I am enjoying this class very much because I am understanding the biological processes behind quotidian things such as eating and the digestion involved in it.

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  3. Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, and other subjects are interdependent. The communities of scientists behind each subject share information and discoveries to complement other information and to make new discoveries. Science is always changing and a breakthrough change in Chemistry can directly affect lots of experiments and information in the field of Biology and vice-versa.

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  4. Understanding chemistry is extremely important in a Biology course as these two sciences are very dependent on one another. Before taking a Biology course one should have some knowledge on Chemistry in order to understand it better.

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