Final Blog

Well, this is finals week for this semester, and our last blog assignment is to talk about the three most useful things that we have learned this semester in Bio Inorganic. After a little reflecting, I decided that the three most useful things to me have been coordination chemistry, metals in medicine, and photosynthesis.

Coordination chemistry, although a very broad topic, is one of the most valuable things I have learned about because it is the basis for inorganic chemistry. Knowing how different ligands interact with metal centers is how you begin to understand the inorganic chemistry of biological systems. Looking at what kind of ligands you have (i.e. monodentate, bidentate, ect...) helps predict the structure of complex ions. I was also able to apply coordination chemistry in Organic Chemistry lecture when we were learning about metal catalysts.

I found metals in medicine to also be very valuable for the simple reason that I, like many of my classmates, plan on going into the medical field. I really enjoyed learning what the different roles each metal has in medicine, such as cisplatin (platinum complex) for anticancer use or Li2CO3 to treat prophylaxis bipolar disorder. These are things that I will be able to use in the many years left of my schooling.

Finally, I thought that our lessons on photosynthesis were useful, at least for me, because I have always struggled with photosynthesis in biology classes. Looking at photosynthesis and photosystem II from a chemistry standpoint instead of a biology one really helped my overall understanding of these systems. I also chose to do my presentation on artificial photosynthesis and used that as an opportunity to expand and improve my understanding on the energy production of plants.

Signing off one last time

-The High School Chemist