Water and Life, Carbon and Molecular Diversity

These flashcards cover key vocabulary and concepts related to the lecture notes on water, life, and carbon molecular diversity.

Calorie (cal)

The amount of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 g of water by 1 °C.

Kilocalorie (kcal)

1,000 calories; the heat required to raise 1 kg of water by 1 °C.

Specific heat

The amount of heat that must be lost or gained for 1 g of a substance to change its temperature by 1 °C.

Hydrophilic

A substance that has an affinity for water.

Hydrophobic

A substance that does not have an affinity for water.

Solute Concentration

The number of solute moles in a volume of solution.

Buffer

A substance that minimizes changes in the concentrations of H+ and OH- in a solution.

Macromolecules

Large molecules composed of thousands of covalently bonded atoms.

Monomer

Small molecules that serve as the building blocks of a polymer.

Polysaccharides

Polymers composed of many sugar building blocks.

Dehydration reaction

The process of joining two molecules by removing a water molecule.

Hydrolysis

The process of breaking down a polymer by adding a water molecule, breaking a bond.

Structural isomers

Compounds that have the same molecular formula but differ in the covalent arrangements of their atoms.

Cis-trans isomers (geometric isomers)

Isomers that differ in their spatial arrangements due to the inflexibility of double bonds.

Tertiary structure

The overall three-dimensional shape of a polypeptide, determined by interactions among side chains.

Quaternary structure

The structure that results from the aggregation of two or more polypeptide chains.