Building Blocks of Chemistry part 1

Hi Readers,

My name is Franz Devantier, creator of this blog.  I am an Herbalist, who uses local and indigenous herbs when available, in preference to imported herbs.  Because Herbalists deal with living human beings, it is important to have an understanding of Anatomy and Physiology, as well as many other related subjects.

Building Blocks of Chemistry part 1

Matter:

Matter is anything that occupies space and has mass.  To keep things simple we can consider mass and weight to be the same.  The mass of an object is equivalent to the amount of matter in the object, which is a constant definition.  The weight of an object varies with the attraction of gravity, which is different at sea-level, to the weight inside an aeroplane flying at high altitude, although the mass has remained constant.

State of Matter:

Matter exists in solid, liquid and gaseous states.  In the human body the teeth and bones are solids, and have a definite shape and volume which is maintained.  Blood plasma is a liquid, which maintains a constant volume, but no definite shape, it takes on the shape of the inside of the blood vessels.  The air that we breathe into our lungs is a gas, and has no definite shape, nor constant volume.  So matter exists in all its states inside the human body.

Energy:

Energy has no mass, and does not take up space.  Energy can be measured by the effects that it has on matter.  You can define energy as the capacity to do work, or to move matter.  The greater the amount of energy available the more work it can do.  A powerful motorcar can travel a lot faster than a less powerful motorcar, because of the relative amounts of energy involved.  If a cricket player batsman hits a six, he has used a lot more energy, than if he were to just block the ball with his bat.  Of course the relationship of mass and energy does get a bit more interesting.

E=MC2, where E = energy, m=mass, and C = the speed of light.

Mass and energy can be considered to be two names or measurement units for the same underlying conserved physical quantity.  Kinetic or radiant energy can be converted to other kinds of particles which have rest energy or rest mass.  During the transformation process from mass to energy and the other way around, neither the total mass, or the total energy changes, since they are both connected to each other by a constant.

However for our purposes, we are going to consider the mass and energy as two distinct processes within the human body, because we are not dealing with any part of the body approaching the speed of light, or the effects on the human body inside the centre of a nuclear explosion.  We will be considering the release of chemical energy that is stored in chemical bonds, inside the body.

Kinetic and Potential Energy:

Basically energy exists in two forms, or defined states.  For example if you drop a stone that you are carrying, and it starts falling towards the ground towards your foot, that is energy in motion or Kinetic energy.  As this stone hits your foot, the kinetic energy is converted into pain.  The stone is now lying still, so there is no more kinetic energy in the stone.

Potential energy on the other hand is stored or inactive energy that has the potential to do work, but is not currently doing any work.  The battery in your cell phone when it is switched off, represents Potential energy.  As soon as you switch the cell phone on, the potential energy is released, and becomes Kinetic energy, as it starts to operate your cell-phone.

Energy is more the domain of physics, than any medically related topic, but since matter and energy are so closely related, and we are dealing with matter, we need to deal with energy as well, even if we just scratch the surface.  Matter is the building block of all the substances in the in the Human Body, and energy is the mover of those substances.  Living organisms that are composed of matter, need energy in order to live, grow and function.  Living organisms release and use energy, and this is part of what makes up the miracle of life, or that special something that makes an organism alive or dead.  So we should go just a little deeper into the different forms of energy that are present in the Human Body.

Forms of Energy:

The Human Body uses several forms of energy. 

Chemical Energy is energy that is stored in the bonds of chemical substances.  When the chemical bonds are broken, potential energy is released and becomes available for use in the form of Kinetic energy.  Some of the food you eat would be converted directly into the energy that you use for body movements.  Mainly though food fuels can’t be directly used to energize body movements.  Some of the energy in the food that we eat is captured in the bonds of a chemical “Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP)”.  When the energy is needed then the chemical bonds of ATP are broken and the stored energy is released for use in the cells of the body.  ATP is the most basic form of chemical energy in the body, and it is used to run all the functional processes in the body.

Electrical Energy is to do with the movement of charged particles.  We know electrical energy best, from the use of electricity in the home.  Electric lights, the geyser, kettle etc, all work on electrical energy; which consists of electrons flowing along the wiring in the household appliances.

In your body electrical currents are generated as charged particles (ions) move across the membranes of your cells.  The nervous system uses electrical currents called nerve impulses, to transmit messages from one part of the body to another part of the body.  For example electrical impulses moving across the heart, are what causes the heart to contract and pump blood.  So it becomes easier to understand why a strong electrical shock to the body can easily upset the delicate electrical balance in the body, and even result in death.

Mechanical Energy is the energy that physically moves matter or objects.  For example walking down the street, is made possible with mechanical energy.  Your muscles move your bones in a complex way, and the result is that you are able to move from one place to another.

Radiant Energy, also known as Electromagnetic energy, is energy that travels in waves.  These waves, have different wavelengths, and the whole range of energy in this form is known as the “electromagnetic spectrum”.  The electromagnetic spectrum includes visible light, infrared waves, radio waves, ultraviolet rays, and X rays.  When light strikes the retinas of our eyes, it is really electromagnetic waves in the visible light spectrum or range, that is striking the retinas of our eyes.  After the light has struck, a whole chain of events or reactions result that will eventually result in us being able to see the object that the light came from.  Ultimately vision is formed in a part of the brain, it is not a direct sense like the sense of touch for example.  Ultraviolet waves cause sunburn, but they also stimulate our body to make vitamin D.  So sunlight needs to be received in very carefully measured doses, if you have a suntan, you have had an overdose of sunlight.  X rays are not part of the body’s function.  X rays have shown some importance in the study of human anatomy, and medical diagnosis, although they are unhealthy for the body.

Energy can mainly easily be converted from one form to another form.  Chemical energy in the form of petrol or gasoline is converted into mechanical engine, which propels your car forward.  Energy conversions are always inefficient.  Some of the original energy is always lost to the environment as heat energy, during the energy conversion.  Note that energy cannot be lost or destroyed, but can be converted to other forms, that you may not be able to utilize.  Think of this energy conversion, Electrical energy is converted into light energy in a light bulb.  However the light bulb will lose a lot of energy in the form of heat energy, the light bulb may be hot enough to burn yourself on.  In the body the same principles apply.  The various energy conversions in the body all liberate heat.  This heat makes us warm blooded animals, and is one of the reasons why human beings have a relatively high body temperature.  The high body temperature has an important influence on the functioning of our bodies.  The higher the temperature, the higher the kinetic energy, the faster the body’s chemical reactions occur.  In fact there is in reality a very narrow band of temperature in which the body can function.  If the body gets too hot, then the proteins begin to denature or deform, and the body can no longer function properly on a chemical level, which can lead to death.  If the body gets too cold then it moves out of its optimum zone of operation, and can also eventually lead to death.  When the body gets too cold to function properly, this is often referred to as Hypothermia, and leads to death if left untreated, or the temperature of the body gets too low.  The body has a complex mechanism which regulates the temperature of itself. 

You can say that the chemical makeup of our bodies was created or designed to function within a very specific temperature band; or that we evolved from groups of chemicals and building blocks, that function optimally in a very specific temperature band.  Which one is it?

Franz Devantier,