Questions for Friday September 5

1. What are the major stages in the history of life on earth?

2. The Miller-Urey experiments were performed quite some time ago.
See if you can find any information about more recent experiments or
scientific studies on the spontaneous origin of life.

3. What was Spiegelman's experiment, and what principles did it demonstrate?

4. What is a peptide bond, and why are they important in biochemistry?

5. What are the types of mutations in the genetic code?

6. What are the advantages of the genetic code over the earlier method
of using ribozymes to generate polypeptides?

7. Outline the steps in the production of protein from DNA. What are the
kinds of RNA involved with these steps?

8. a. How does ATP release energy?
   b. What are the ways in which energy is used to generate ATP?

9. What are the advantages of containing cell components in a membrane?

10. Why is osmosis an example of the Second Law of Thermodynamics?


These are problems from the end of Chapter 2 (p. 39-40):

2.

4. (related to 10. above) Use the equations on p. 13 of Chapter 1 to explain
your answer.

8.