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THE APPEAL OF BIOCHEMISTRY IN AN EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM * Ross A l K E N GORTNER, UNIVERSITY OR MINNESOTA, ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA Perhaps i t is a trite remark to say that man is primarily interested in man. To be sure all normal individuals show a greater or a less interest in all natural phenomena, but after all such expression of interest can be regarded as an interest in man's environment, how man can react upon such natural phenomena to produce results which will make for a more favorable environment or how the natural phenomena may be expected to react upon man himself. For example, I assume that everyone reading this paper is acquainted with the radio and regards i t as a remarkable achievement of physical science. The interest of the great majority of individuals is, however, mainly not a scientific but a selfish interest, especially just before a football game which we cannot attend in person. How eagerly we "listen in" on such occasions, how we thrill when our favorite football star goes over for a touchdown! That our interest is a personal interest is demonstrable if I were to ask the great majority of you to explain the scientificprinciples underlying the construction of a radio instrument and to diagram a set-up which would function properly. The great majority of people are interested not in the basic principles of electricity but in the end results which affect the environment of themselves as individuals and yet--only a few years ago the average high-school boy's vocabulary did not contain such physical terms as fixed condensers, variable condensers, static, grid and plate, amplifiers,shielding, insulator, ground, etc., whereas today such terms are a part of the common language. Why? They are no less scientific today than they were a decade ago but they have been removed from the abstract and made a part of the environment of any boy who has built a one-tube radio set. They have a personal and, therefore, a popular appeal. One has merely to mention "static" or "interference" a t a dinner party nowadays to start as animated conversation as "weather" used to start. All of which illustrates that if we are going to get across to the masses appreciation of the rBle that science is playing in our modern civilization, we need to use an illustration affecting either the individual or the individual's environment. Organic chemistry texts have been on the market for nearly a hundred years; nevertheless, very few have ever been found on the shelves of the book departments of our larger department stores. Why? There was no personal appeal. And then Slosson wrote "Creative Chemistry!" To be
* Abstract of an address delivered before the Chemistry, Physics, and Biological Science Sections of the Minnesota Educational Association; Minneapolis, Nov. 11, 1927.
sure i t is written in popular language but that is not the whole story. I t is likewise a graphic description of organic chemistry as a vital factor in our modem environment, and i t has been read by tens of thousands of persons who have become firm friends of chemistry as a science. But if an appeal to our reaction toward our environment can cause such an effect, how much greater is the possibility if the appeal is made directly to ourselves. Such a possibility lies in the field of biochemistry. Biochemisiry, the chemistry of living processes! The same fundamental principles which underlie the fields of general chemistry, inorganic chemistry, and physical chemistry, are the fundamental principles which regulate the chemical processes taking place in living organisms. When we think of the great mass of students who complete their regularly scheduled science training with the completion of high-school chemistry and of the other great group who satisfy their college requirement of "ten credits in science" with general chemistry courses, are we meeting our obligation to these students when we practically ignore a discussion of the relation of these courses to the chemical processes of the living organism? Perhaps we could profit by reversing the order of study and indicating a t the beginning the rBle that chemistry plays in our life and in our environment. Such apreface to study would arouse the interest of the student so that he would study, not for the sake of grades or credits, but rather so that he could know more about himself. A man is composed of a mixture of chemical elements which can be bought a t current rates from a chemical supply house for less than one dollar. These elements, however, are combined in many forms, some very simple compounds, others extremely complex. These compounds exist together in a wonderfully intricate equilibrium which is maintained by the phenomenon which we call life. Take, for example, the phenomenon of water balance in the body. The brain isolated from the body can swell 1000 per cent and still maintain its coherence. If i t swells 3 per cent during life, coma and death ensue. If we only knew all of the story of the rBle that water plays in the vital mechanism, we would he able to accomplish things in medicine that we can only dream of a t present. Water is the chief component of all living organisms, and yet when water is discussed in the early chemistry courses, it is exceedingly rare that any mention is made of its biological importance. A frog's egg, weighing only a few milligrams, can develop into a tadpole two centimeters or more in length without any external source of food, the increase in weight being supplied wholly by water. As a matter of fact the dry matter in the tadpole is less than that in the original egg, due to loss of carbon dioxide and water through the process of oxidation which we call respiration. Such an experiment could be used or cited early in a student's course
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and would definitely fix in the student's mind the tremendous r6le which water plays in vital processes. Probably no other substance or compound involved in vital processes deserves as much study as does water, and yet the general belief is that water exists in an organism in much the same state as it exists in a sponge. Undoubtedly, such is not the case. Iron, another element, can and should be taught as occurring in ores, as having great value in industry, as forming salts with acids, as being di- and tri-valent, etc., but can we not find time to mention that all of the higher animals, including man, are able to live and function due to the chemical reactivity of a wonderful red compound in the blood, the hemo~lobin,and that this red compound contains iron as an essential constituent? In discussing the affinity of iron for oxygen, as illustrated in the formation of iron rust, the r6le of iron in the respiration of animals could well be noted, and later when copper and copper compounds are studied, would not attention be attracted if the statement were made that in certain animals (e. g., mollusca, crustacea, etc.) copper takes the place that iron plays in the higher animals and that the respiratory pigment of the blood contains copper? Possibly such illustrations would make it easier for a student to visualize the terms "oxidation" and "reduction," a t least he would have an illustration of how such processes affect every cell in his own body. In addition to hemoglobin we have an identical illustration in the study of magnesium. The green chlorophyll of plants, through the agency of which the energy of the sun transforms carbon dioxide and water and nitrites into organic compounds, making possible practically all of the forms of life, certainly all forms of higher plants and animals, contains magnesium as an essential constituent. If nature were to forget for a period of probably less than a year the secret formula for the synthesis of chlorophyll, i t is highly probable that all of the mammals and probably all of the other forms of life, with the exception of certain bacteria and fungi, would be annihilated. Does not such an important compound of magnesium deserve mention if in no other place than a paragraph deliberately intended to stimulate the interest of the student? And would not the addition of a statement that chlorophyll cannot be synthesized in the plant, if iron is absent, be of interest? Thus, iron is not only a part of the vital respiratory pigment of animals but is necessary for the formation of the vital synthesizing pigment of plants! At present all or nearly all of the illustrations found in our high-school chemistries and in our "general chemistry" texts are drawn from the fields of engineering and chemical technology; yet how many of the students will be engineers or chemists? All of these students are living organisms and are surrounded with other forms of life; yet in the great majority of cases they are taught nothing of the chemistry of vital phenomena. Only a limited few are, after years of study, introduced to this fascinating field.
Is such a treatment fair to the great mass of students who are "exposed" to beginning courses in chemistry? Are our expenditures for classrooms and laboratories used so as to give the information which will interest the most deeply and affect the most vitally the greatest number? I raise these questions and leave you to answer them.
