Massive Molecules

As we finish the chemistry part of physical science, I've started throwing a lot of organic molecules at my students that somehow tie into real life. My hope is that by giving them some real-life relevance to the abstract material they'll remember some of it better. A favorite molecule we discussed this week was the buckyball, a spherical cage made up of 60 carbon atoms. I pointed out that it was found in soot, and produced by lightning discharges. I also mentioned it was not isolated until 1985, which seems recent to me, but already ancient history to them.

We went on to compared buckyballs to graphite, which is made up of sliding carbon sheets. A student raised his hand and asked "what does a buckyball do?" I was caught off guard and couldn't tell him the answer off hand. Upon looking it up I found that it is being tested for its use to suppress allergic responses. Apparently it can bind to a mast cell (the immune cells in the body) and prevent the release of histamines. This fun fact, proved useful in one of my classes, in which a lot of students volunteered their experiences with allergies and allergic symptoms.

Another molecule we talked about was caffeine. Because we were discussing polar molecules, I pointed out caffeine's oxygen and nitrogen atoms, which serve as "electron magnets" and make it polar. I also gave them a quick animation of how caffeine acts by binding to nerve cells. Apparently it acts as an inhibitor of adenosine, the "drowsiness" molecule that helps to induce sleep. When caffeine takes up adenosine's parking place on the nerve cell, it prevents drowsiness from happening and the person's alertness level is heightened. As I went over caffeine's side effects, a student asked me whether it stunted growth at all. A cursory investigation on my part revealed no conclusive evidence of this.

The other biologically relevant molecule I introduced them to was aspirin. On the quiz (referred to by one of my students as the "Super Bowl" of quizzes) I had them find the formula for aspirin. Next week I hope to go into a bit about its functionality in the body and give a general idea of how it is made in the laboratory.

Bringing in some of the biochemistry and organic chem has been fun for me and I aim to dish out a few more massive molecules the next week before break. I've thought briefly about how these topics could be used for a Birdley comic. (Caffeine + Dr. Birdley = ?)