What is Biochemistry?

Biochemistry can be defined as the science concerned with the chemical basis of life
(Greek bios “life”). It is the chemistry of biology. The science of biochemistry has also been
called physiological chemistry and biological chemistry. The major objective of
biochemistry is the complete understanding, at the molecular level, of all of the chemical
processes associated with living cells.

Biochemistry is a branch of Life science concerned with studying the various

molecules that occur in living cells and organisms, with their chemical reactions. Because
life depends on biochemical reactions, biochemistry can be called the “basic language” of all
biological sciences. Biochemistry is concerned with the complete spectrum of all forms of
life, from relatively simple viruses and bacteria to complex human beings. It attempts to
describe in molecular terms the structures, mechanisms, and chemical processes shared by
all organisms. It also describes the organizing principles that underlie life in all its diverse
forms, principles we refer to collectively as the molecular logic of life.

Biochemistry explains how the remarkable properties of living organisms arise from
the thousands of different lifeless (?!) biomolecules. The study of biochemistry shows how
the collections of inanimate molecules that constitute living organisms interact to maintain
and perpetuate life animated solely by the physical and chemical laws that govern the
nonliving universe. In this context “Life can be referred to as orderly arrangement that
makes “molecules”, functional, in the sense, it governs or performs various physio-chemical
work during which energy is transmutated and led to different functions accounting for what
we call living”. Although biochemistry provides important insights and practical applications
in medicine, agriculture, nutrition, and industry, its ultimate concern is with the wonder of
life itself.

Biochemistry and medicine are intimately related to each other. The World Health
Organization (WHO) defines health as a state of “complete physical, mental and social well-
being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity.” From a strictly biochemical
viewpoint, health may be considered that situation in which all of the intra- and extracellular
reactions that occur in the body are in perfect harmony. Health depends on a harmonious
balance of biochemical reactions taking place in the body, and disease (“a state of harmony
amidst cacophony”), reflects abnormalities in biomolecules, imbalances in biochemical
reactions, or biochemical processes.

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Biochemistry Online and my profile as an Online Tutor. There is an old adage that says that
you never really learn a subject until you teach it.