Questions (Lecture 1- Lecture 5)

Lecture -1
1. How are biochemistry, bioengineering and biotechnology related?
All are related to living organism.
2. What are the major elemental compositions of human body?
Major components are O, C, H, N, Ca, P, containing 65.0, 18.5, 9.5, 3.2, 1.5, and 1.0 % of body
compositions respectively.
3. What is meant by organic chemistry?
Organic chemistry is the chemistry of compound containing C, except CO, CO2, CO3 24. What is a covalent bond?
Covalent bond is a chemical bond which involves the sharing of electron pairs between atoms.
5. What is the meaning of a cell in the biological system?
Cell is a machine in the body that carries out different function such as self-assembly, work,
evolution and development.
6. Give an example of a eukaryotic and a prokaryotic cell.
Human cell and E.coli
7. List any six components of a cell and their functions?
Plasma membrane: barrier, protection
Lysosome: garbage disposal
Mitochondria: produce energy
Ribosomes: protein synthesis
Nucleus: store genetic info
8. How are the larger structures assembled from the smaller components?
By noncovalent assembly (Van der Wall)
9. Explain the hierarchical organization of biological systems.
From macromolecules such as cytochrome, combining together to form supramolecular
molecular assembly such as inner mitochondrial membrane, then organelle such as
mitochondrion, then cell, tissue, organ and finally body.
10. What is meant by bioengineering, and biotechnology?
Bioeng is the application of engineering methods to scientific findings of biology.
Biotech is the tech app using biological systems, living organisms or derivatives thereof, to
make or modify products or processes for specific use
11. Give examples of biotechnological developments in Singapore.
Tuas Medical Park, oil refineries in Jurong Island
12. What is the science behind the fermentation of beer?
Using enzymes in yeast to convert carbohydrates into alcohol

Mass production biotech

13. What is meant by genetic modification organisms (GMO)? What are the major GM crops? List
four mega countries that use more GMOs.
GMO: certain part in the gene of known effect is modified to achieve a desired effect. Examples
of GM foods are pest-resistant rice plants, drought-resistant corns. Countries are US, China,
India and Argentina
14. List four applications of biotech in health care sector. Provide examples of drugs whose sales
cross over 1 billion dollars per year.
Diagnostics, therapeutics, regenerative medicines, vaccines
Eg: alpha-2-interferon treating cancer, hepatitis vaccine, insulin.
15. List two applications of biotech in the food and environment sector.
Renewable energy and biofuels, food safety testing
Lecture -2

1. What is oil? What are its major components?

Liquid fats, neutral, nonpolar, and immiscible with water.
Major components: triglycerides of fatty acids.
2. What is meant by van der Waals interactions?
Weak attraction between transient dipoles as electron distribution is not static
3. What is a fatty acid? What are the differences between saturated and unsaturated fatty acids?
Fatty acid is carboxylic acid of aliphatic hydrocarbon chains of 4-24 C. Saturated acid contain
only single bonds between 2 C atoms, unsaturated means double or even triple bonds.
4. How is a triglyceride formed? Give an example.
Glycerol + 3 fatty acids such as stearic acid, e.g. glyceryl tristearate C57H110O6)
5. What are the relationship between number of carbon atoms/chain length and the physical state
of the hydrocarbon?
The more, the more hydrophobic it becomes
6. Explain what a hydrogen bonding contact is.
Attraction formed by interactions between negative and positive sides of polar molecules, under
the form of electrostatic attraction.
7. What is meant by electronegativity? Give examples of high and low electronegative elements.
Electron attracting power of an atom. High is O, low is K
8. What is an emulsion?
Mixture of immiscible fluids
9. What is a surfactant?
Substance that reduces surface tension of water

10. How can you make soap? Briefly describe the action of soap.
Fat (triglyceride) undergoes base hydrolysis (saponification) with NaOH (aq), to form fatty acid
salt which is soap, and glycerin.
Soap (detergents) interact with the strain (e.g. oily stuff) and makes it soluble or soap
dissolves the strain - forms emulsion- washing with excess water the strain can be removed
11. What is meant by homogenization? Give an example.
The process of converting 2 immiscible fluids into an emulsion. E.g. Forcing milk at high
pressure thru a small hole onto impact surface, to make it easier for mixing.
12. What is micelle? What are the properties of lipid bilayers?
Micelles are lipid molecules arranging themselves in a spherical form in aqueous solutions.
Usually the hydrophobic tails face each other whereas hydrophilic heads in contact with
surrounding environment. Lipid bilayers are highly impermeable except with water and gas
molecules. Another property is fluidity, which allows protein structures inside the cell to move
freely, affecting membrane transport.
13. What are the major subunits of biological lipid bilayers?
Phospholipid, sphingolipid, cholesterol
14. How is cholesterol lipid different from other lipid bilayers?
Cholesterol disrupts the packing of tail groups in lipids.
15. How are liposomes used for targeted drug delivery?
They can contain both hydrophilic and hydrophobic inside them. Surface can also be modified to
alter bio-distribution and pharmacokinetics. Can be controlled of the release of drug by change
in temperature.
Lecture-3
1. What is rubber?
Rubber is a sticky, elastic solid produced from milky liquid called latex. It is a natural
biomaterial.
2. Why does rubber bounce?
Crosslinks between polyisopropene chains confer elasticity.
3. What is a vulcanized rubber?
It has the sulfur crosslinks which improve strength and elasticity.
4. What are the components of cellulose fiber? Give an example of natural cellulose.
It is made up of threads of macrofibril, which in turn are made up of microfibril which is a chain
of cellulose molecules. Cotton.
5. Explain how the cellulose polymer is being formed or what is a condensation reaction? Give
example.

From glucose monomers, condensation occurs to link them into glucose polymers. Cellulose, a
polymer formed by the condensation of -D-glucopyranose units.
Condensation reactions is which 2 molecules combine to form a large molecule with a loss of a
small molecule, most commonly water.
6. What is the difference between amorphous and crystalline regions of a cellulose fiber?
Amorphous region can absorb more water than crystalline region.
7. Explain the sulfur and hydrogen bond crosslinks.
Sulfur crosslinks are between polyisopropene chains, whereas H bond crosslinks are between
glucose polymer chains.
8. What is cellulose acetate?
Cellulose acetate is a semi-synthetic polymer - useful to cast, mold, and spin
Ester of cellulose and acetic acid.
9. Explain the steps involved in dry spinning.
Firstly, the polymer is dissolved into a volatile solvent and the solution is pumped thru a
spinneret with numerous holes. As fibers exit spinneret, air is used to dry the solvent so that the
fibers solidify.
10. Explain the properties of polycarbonates? Given an example of its application.
PC is another industrially important polymer - transparent, excellent toughness, thermal stability
- one of the most widely used thermoplastics. E.g. polycarbonate membrane
11. What are the major classifications in carbohydrates?
Simple and complex (polysaccharides). Simple has mono and disaccharides
12. List the name of four monosaccharaides.
Glucose, fructose, galactose, mannose
13. List the name two disaccharides and its monomers (single subunits).
Sucrose: glucose + fructose, lactose: galactose + glucose
14. What is agar? What are the properties of gel?
Agar, or agar agar, is a gelling agent extracted from red algae. Gel is mostly liquid, but behave
like solids; it has polymer network; it is elastic but brittle.
15. How the gel is obtained from agarose? Give an example for its application.
Agarose chain is formed from agarose thru covalent bonds, which then forms dimer helices by
H bonds, and finally forms gel thru crosslinks. An application is that DNA and protein
molecules are separated by agarose gel electrophoresis.

Lecture -4
1. What are the two major types of nucleic acids? List their differences.
DNA, RNA. Double and single strand, T and U. Long and short. Carry info and be functional

2. How the duplexes are formed?

Nucleic acids are formed from nucleotides thru phosphodiester bond, then H bond and
hydrophobic effect will make nucleic acids into duplex
3. What is a phosphodiester bond?
Bond between pentose sugar and phosphate group
4. List five different types of nucleobases? What is the difference between purine and
pyrimidine?
Adenine, thymine, uracil, guanine, cytosine. Pyrimidines (one ring structure) or purines (two
rings structure)
5. What are the nucleotides which make three hydrogen bonding contacts in the DNA duplex?
A-T and G-C
6. What is 5 and 3 in a polynucleotide?
Top of the strand is 5, bottom is 3. In antiparallel duplex, a 3 end is near a 5 end. Usually 5
contains phosphate group whereas 3 contains OH group.
7. How the DNA strands self-assemble to form duplex?
8. When the DNA structure was discovered?
1953
9. Explain minor groove and major groove in the DNA duplex.
Minor groove is smaller. Both are voids of double helix and provide space for binding with
proteins.
10. What are the four forces that govern the double helix formation?
H bond pairs for base pairing A with T (U), G with C. Hydrophobic effect and Van der Waal,
leading to base stacking. Negative charges oppose double helix.
11. What is meant by complementary base pairs in the duplex?
A with T (U), G with C
12. Explain stem loop secondary structure.
Only H bonds taken into account, ss DNA or RNA will form a simple hairpin shape.
13. Give an example of RNA nucleoprotein complex and what is its function?
mRNA: messenger
14. Give an example of DNA nucleoprotein complex and what is its function?
Chromatin, to pack DNA into smaller vol to fit the cell
15. Given an example of DNA technology.
GM food, modify DNA, give cell new function.

Lecture -5
1. Who and when the first synthetic fiber was invented?
1935, by DuPonts
2. Give an example of simple polyamide formation.
Nylon
3. What is polymerization? Explain with example.
Monomers -> dimers, trimers, all these combine to form small fragments; combination of
small fragments is called polymers. E.g. PVC
4. What is Crystallinity? What are its influences in the property of plastics?
It is the degree of structural order in a solid (or ordered structure). Higher crystallinity makes
plastics more brittle, less elastic.
5. What is an amino acid? Explain with example.
-COOH and NH2, glycine
6. Write the full name and their classification of the amino acids: R, D, K, F, W, N, Q, E and Y.
R: arginine, D: Aspartic acid, K: Lysine, F: phenylalanine, W: tryptophan, N: asparagine, Q:
glutamine, E: glutamic acid, Y: tyrosine
7. What is a peptide? Explain with example.
Chain of amino acids linked together by peptide bond (condensation between NH2 and
COOH groups). E.g. spider silk
8. What is a peptide bond? Draw and explain with example.
9. Explain -sheet and -strand.
-strand is a stretch of 3 or more linear aa and it should be a part of -sheet
-strands form a planar sheet with side chain lie above and below plane
H-bonds between adjacent (antiparallel) or alternate (parallel) subunits (-strands)
sheet can be all parallel, all antiparallel, or mixed -strands
10. What is a parallel and anti-parallel -sheet? Given an example of -sheet fiber.
Parallel: C to C, N to N; antiparallel: C to N and vice versa
11. What is an -helix? How the coiled-coil helices are formed? Give an example.
H bonds with 4th aa form helix. E.g. Keratin
12. Explain collagen triple helix. How is it stabilized?
Steric repulsion between proline a.a in the monomer drives helix formation. Interchain H bonds
stabilize triplex
13. List any 3 applications of collagen.
Gelatin, artificial skin, extra cellular matrix
14. List and briefly explain the key steps involved in gelatin formation.

Heat dissociates collagen triple helix to monomer strands, cooling re-associates strands into a
gel
15. How the amino acid Glycine and Proline are different from other amino acids?
Glycine has no side chain, thus is more flexible, whereas proline has side chain fused with main
chain of amino acids, making it very rigid.
Lecture-6
1. What are the major functions of proteins?
Structure, regulation, signaling, transport, movement, catalysis
2. What are the differences between peripheral and integral membrane protein?
Peripheral proteins are attached to the surface of the membrane while integral proteins are
embedded in the lipid bilayer.
3. What are the main functions of a membrane protein?
Transporter-facility the movement of molecules/ions across the membrane
Receptor-bind ligands and sense change-relay signals between cells internal and external
environment
Enzymes-catalyse chemical reactions at the extracellular or intracellular surfaces of the
membrane
Anchor/attachment/recognition-attachment point at the intracellular matrix(cytoskeleton)-Extra
cellular matrix component-cell:cell interaction-crosslink between one cell membrane to another
cell membrane
4. List different types of membrane proteins?
Integral: transmembrane a-helix and b-barrel
Peripheral: peripheral extracellular and peripheral cytosolic, lipidanchored and helixanchored.
5. General property of a transmembrane region of a protein?
Hydrophobic
6. List steps involved in protein folding process?
Unfolded random structure-local secondary structure-condense and packing into compact
globular shape-proteins function only after folding is complete.
7. Types of hydrogen bonds in proteins?
Backbone vs. backbone, backbone vs. side chain, side chain vs. side chain
8. Where the hydrophobic amino acids side chains are found in a well-folded globular
protein? Why?
Cluster together in the interior of protein molecules and form hydrophobic cluster to avoid water
molecules.
9. Explain disulfide bond in proteins and its importance.
Disulfide bond formed between side chains of two Cys amino acids, which may be distant in the
linear sequence but adjacent in the 3d space
Contribute to the formation of folded native 3d structure which is important for the function.
10. What are the difference between acid and enzyme cleavages of a protein?why?
Acid cleavage is random while enzyme cleavage is specific. Because acid cleavage attacks all
peptide bonds while enzyme only cleave specific position fits its active side.
11. What is meant by hydrolysis?

Hydrolysis is cleavage of chemical bonds by water molecules

12. Example of protease and their specificity.
Trypsin cleaves the bond after a Lys or Arg (basic amino acid)
Chmotripsin cleaves the bond after Tyr or Trp or Phe (hydrophobic aa)
13. Active side of serine protease?
Located at the suface of the structure: Serine, histidine, aspartate
14. Nucleophilic attack is bond formation between a nucleophile(electron donating) and
electron deficient substrate.
15. Ea is the minimum energy required for a reaction to proceed.
Lecture 9
What is petroleum? How is it formed?
viscous liquid of hydrocarbons, from decomposed organics in the earth, extracted and
refined into fuels
What are the different types of hydrocarbons in petroleum?
alkanes, napthas and aromatics.
Alkanes are the major component and it consists of 11 to 32 carbon atoms with one or more 6membered rings. Napthas consist of 5 to 12 carbon atom containing hydrocarbons, whereas the
aromatics mainly consist of benzene ring with other structures.
How is crude oil converted into fuel products?
refining process. The first
step in this process is based on the boiling point (i.e. crude oil is separated by distillation). Lightest
components that have low boiling point that comes out first, and the heaviest one, which has the
highest boiling point, will condense at the bottom of the distillation column. After the distillation of
crude oil, various fractions are collected and taken for the next level of refining process to further
separate the independent components of each fraction. These processes include steam creaking,
catalytic cracking, isomerization and reforming. As a last step of refining, the separated products are
treated with chemicals (e.g. lead) and removed unwanted chemicals (e.g. sulfur) to alter the
combustion property.

What is isomerization in petroleum refining?

Isomerization - is the chemical process in which hydrocarbon molecules are rearranged into a
more useful molecule.
Differentiate heat of combustion and oxidation.
Combustion is the complete oxidation of organic compound into
CO2 and H2O in the presence of O2 gas
Combustion reactions are exothermic, that gives light and heat .
This light is normally called as burning.
Not all oxidizing reactions are combustions, but all combustion
reactions are oxidizing reactions. E.g. iron (Fe) becomes iron
oxide (Fe3O4) when it reacts with oxygen. It is an oxidization, not
combustion.
Not all oxidation reactions involve heat, whereas combustion
reactions involve heat
What is exothermic reaction? Explain the combustion of methane.
An exothermic reaction is a chemical reaction that releases energy by light or heat

 How are the energy and enthalpy related?

Same unit
What is the implication of fossil fuel usage in greenhouse gas emission?
Fossil fuels emit greenhouse gas.
Define energy density and specific energy.
Energy density is the amount of energy stored in a given system per unit volume
Specific energy (Es) is the energy (E) per unit mass (m) of a fuel
What are the three major oil refineries in Singapore? What are their capacities?
ExxonMobil Refinery 605,000 bbl/d (96,200 m3/d)
Singapore Refining Corporation (SRC), 290,000 bbl/d (46,000 m3/d)
Shell Pulau Bukom Refinery (Royal Dutch Shell), 500,000 bbl/d (79,000 m3/d)
Why fat has similar specific energy as gasoline?
Fat is mostly lipid. Lipid has high hydrocarbon content and thus has similar specific energy as
gasoline
How is the energy released from ATP?
Energy released from the hydrolysis of phosphoanhydride linkage
How is the energy extracted from glucose?
Respiration cellular reactions that extract energy from glucose into 30-38
ATPs (energy) and end products, CO2 and H2O
When the body is able to supply the cells with the oxygen and glucose that
they need, it carries our aerobic respiration
When the body cannot supply the cells with the oxygen needed to break
down glucose, then it has to carry out anaerobic respiration.
Energy is released without oxygen.
What is meant by respiration? What are its types and explain the differences.
Respiration cellular reactions that extract energy from glucose into 30-38
ATPs (energy) and end products, CO2 and H2O
When the body is able to supply the cells with the oxygen and glucose that
they need, it carries our aerobic respiration
When the body cannot supply the cells with the oxygen needed to break
down glucose, then it has to carry out anaerobic respiration.
Energy is released without oxygen.
What is chemiosmosis?
Chemiosmosis is the movement of ions across the membrane, more specifically, it relates
to the generation of ATP by the movement of hydrogen ions (H+) across a membrane.
Lecture 7
1. What is photoelectric effect?
Energy from light ejects electron from a metal surface.
2. What is the wavelength and energy range of sunlight?
380-750nm, energy range from 1.75 to 3.25 eV
3. Explain the bacteriorhodopsin (BR) molecule?

It consists of 7 hydrophobic transmembrane alpha-helices that span the lipid bilayer membrane.
It is a trimeric membrane protein. 3 BR molecules arrange as a donut with a central hole. Basic
and acidic amino acids form the cytoplasmic and extracellular surfaces while the
transmembrane region is hydrophobic.
4. How does BR pump proton? How BR creates bio battery?
BR can pump out 1 H+ for every photon absorbed. Gradient of H+ across the membrane is
coupled to the production of ATP. BR contains retinal which is chromophore attached to Lys
216 of BR. It lies in the center of the transmembrane helices of BR. When light hits BR, photon
absorbed by the retinal energy from a photon induces a structural change in retinal and it acts
like a switch. BR drives H+ from the cell to create a bio battery by forming an electrochemical
gradient. High H+ outside / low H+ inside generates gradients. The H+ gradient forms an
electrochemical potential energy across the membrane.
5. What is cis-trans conformation?
Trans: 180o torsion (opposite sides) angle, cis 0o (same sides)
6. How BR and ATP synthase are associated?
In BR, there is an ATP synthesis machinery, containing an extracellular part and a cytoplasm
inside the cell. Electrochemical gradient of protons (or protons + other ions) provides
intermediate energy storage and drive ATP synthesis machinery to produce ATP. The ATP will
counteract excessive loss of water from the cells.
7. What is ATP synthesis machinery - structural and functional aspects?
ATP synthesis machinery, containing an extracellular part and a cytoplasm inside the cell. The
core ATP systhase consists of alpha, beta, gamma subunits. Alpha and beta arrange alternatively,
forming hexamer, gamma docks inside hexamer. (need more info)
8. What is photosynthesis?
CO2 + water through chlorophyll which is hit by UV in sunlight, produce glucose and O2
9. What are the two major steps or process in photosynthesis?

The light dependent reactions convert the light energy into chemical energy (ATP,
NADPH).

The light independent reactions use the chemical energy to synthesis organic compounds
(e.g. glucose).

10. What is chloroplast and what is its role?

It is a organelle and it captures light.
11. What is electron transport chain?
Chlorophyll is a complex photoreceptor molecule which absorbs energy from light. Chlorophyll
is a derivative of tetra pyrrole molecule.
The observed energy from light excites the electron from its ground level to higher level
These electrons are transferred from one molecule to other-called electron transport chain
(ETC)

12. Why cell lose water for salty environment? And what is the consequence?
Since salty environment has high conc of salts, it tends to diffuse to the environment with lower
conc. But cell membrane blocks salt molecules, so only water can pass through, thus diffuse.
Consequence is dehydration.
13. What is a proton motive force?
The proton gradient across the thylakoid membrane creates a proton-motive force, used by ATP
synthase (machinery) to generate ATP
14. What are the similarities and differences between photoelectric effect and photosynthesis?
Both take advantage of light energy (photon) to convert to other forms of energy. Photoelectric
converts to electrical, photosynthesis convert to chemical
15. What is the common concept in producing photocurrent by a metal, proton pump in a
bacterium and glucose by plants?
Photoelectric effect

Lecture -8 Questions
What are the three major storage forms of cellular fuel?
Starch, glycogen, fat droplet
How is glucose obtained from starch?
In the body, starch is broken down by random cleavage of the branched and linear chains by a
salivary amylase enzyme. The oligosaccharides are shortened by a pancreatic amylase enzyme.
Glucose is produced by glucosidase enzymes.
Explain what is amylose and amylopectin?
A starch molecule consists of hundreds of glucose molecules as - branched (amylopectin) unbranched (amylose)
What is the difference between -D-glucose and -D-glucose?
Structures are almost identical, except in the form, the OH group on the far right is down,
and, in the form, the OH group on the far right is up.
What is glycogen, how is it produced and where it is stored?
Glycogen, a glucose polysaccharide, consists of linear amylose chains with 1-4 linkages and
branched amylopectin 1-6 linkages as starch, also known as animal starch. In liver, glucose is
converted into glycogen for storage.
How is starch different from glycogen? List the differences.
Glycogen is more branched than starch. Heavier in mass. Starch branches in every 20-30 -4
linkages whereas glycogen branches every 10-12 1-4 linkages. Starch has semi-crystalline
granule when glycogen has non-crystalline granule. Starch is stored in seeds, tubers, roots, when
glycogen is stored in liver and muscle.
How are the insoluble lipids being transported in our body?

Large fat droplets form emulsions of micelles with bile salts from the gall bladder
Lipase enzymes from the pancreas convert triglycerides into fatty acids and glycerol
Fatty acids and glycerol pass across the intestine membrane and reassemble into triglycerides
and are packaged into chylomicrons
What is chylomicron?
Chylomicrons are lipoprotein particles comprised of triglycerides (~85%), phospholipids
(~10%), cholesterol (~2%), and proteins (~1-3%). They transport dietary lipids from the
intestines to other locations in the body.
The non-polar lipids from food form the core of a vesicle with an
outer layer of phospholipid and lipoproteins.
Chylomicrons travel through the bloodstream to deliver the dietary lipids to the liver, adipose
tissue, and muscle.
How is the energy extracted from fatty acid? What are the three stages in fatty acid oxidation?
Lipases degrade triglycerides to glycerol and fatty acids. Glycerol is converted to pyruvate and
then glucose. Fatty acids are oxidized to Acetyl CoA and to CO2 and H2O. Electron transfer
chain - proton motive force - produce ATP
3 stages:
Stage 1: A long-chain fatty acid is oxidized to yield acetyl residues in the form of acetyl-CoA.
Stage 2: The acetyl residues are oxidized to CO2 via the Citric Acid Cycle.
Stage 3: Electrons derived from the oxidations of stages 1 and 2 are passed to O2 via the
mitochondrial respiratory chain, providing the energy for ATP synthesis by oxidative
phosphorylation.
What is meant by renewable energy?
Renewable energy is generally defined as energy that comes from resources which
are naturally replenished on a human timescale, such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides,
waves, and geothermal heat.
What are biofuels? (Hints: sugar -> Ethanol and fat/lipid -> biodiesel) How is ethanol obtained
from glucose? How is lipid converted into biodiesel? (Note: above 2-Qs are same).
A biofuel is a fuel that is produced through contemporary biological processes, such
as agriculture and anaerobic digestion. Ethanol is obtained from glucose through
fermentation or through catalytic cellulosic ethanol.
Why algae are a good source of biofuel?
Algae can grow in any kind of water body. Reduce greenhouse gas emissions. High oil content
in algae body. Productivity per unit area is much higher compared to others such as palm,
jatropha.
What is greenhouse effect?
Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor, and nitrous oxide trap the heat
and keep the earth warm

 What do we know about Jatropha biodiesel?

Jatropha produces inedible fruits, reduces wastage and food crisis, larger area available to grow.
List the advantages and disadvantages of bio and fossil fuels.
Fossil: lower cost of production, suitable for all kinds of engine
Bio: reduce greenhouse gas emissions, less air pollutant emissions (except NO2), biodegradable,
suitable for most modern engine, non-toxic, safer to handle, can be produced anywhere (no need
to depend on oil export countries)
Lecture 9
What is petroleum? How is it formed?
Viscous liquid of hydrocarbons, from decomposed organics in the earth, extracted and refined
into fuels
What are the different types of hydrocarbons in petroleum?
alkanes, napthas and aromatics.
Alkanes are the major component and it consists of 11 to 32 carbon atoms with one or more 6membered rings. Napthas consist of 5 to 12 carbon atom containing hydrocarbons, whereas the
aromatics mainly consist of benzene ring with other structures.
How is crude oil converted into fuel products?
refining process. The first
step in this process is based on the boiling point (i.e. crude oil is separated by distillation).
Lightest
components that have low boiling point that comes out first, and the heaviest one, which has the
highest boiling point, will condense at the bottom of the distillation column. After the
distillation of
crude oil, various fractions are collected and taken for the next level of refining process to
further
separate the independent components of each fraction. These processes include steam creaking,
catalytic cracking, isomerization and reforming. As a last step of refining, the separated
products are
treated with chemicals (e.g. lead) and removed unwanted chemicals (e.g. sulfur) to alter the
combustion property.
What is isomerization in petroleum refining?
Isomerization - is the chemical process in which hydrocarbon molecules are rearranged into a
more useful molecule.
Differentiate heat of combustion and oxidation.
Combustion is the complete oxidation of organic compound into
CO2 and H2O in the presence of O2 gas
Combustion reactions are exothermic, that gives light and heat.
This light is normally called as burning.
Not all oxidizing reactions are combustions, but all combustion
reactions are oxidizing reactions. E.g. iron (Fe) becomes iron
oxide (Fe3O4) when it reacts with oxygen. It is an oxidization, not
combustion.

 Not all oxidation reactions involve heat, whereas combustion

reactions involve heat
What is exothermic reaction? Explain the combustion of methane.
An exothermic reaction is a chemical reaction that releases energy by light or heat
How are the energy and enthalpy related?
Same unit
What is the implication of fossil fuel usage in greenhouse gas emission?
Fossil fuels emit greenhouse gas.
Define energy density and specific energy.
Energy density is the amount of energy stored in a given system per unit volume
Specific energy (Es) is the energy (E) per unit mass (m) of a fuel
What are the three major oil refineries in Singapore? What are their capacities?
ExxonMobil Refinery 605,000 bbl/d (96,200 m3/d)
Singapore Refining Corporation (SRC), 290,000 bbl/d (46,000 m3/d)
Shell Pulau Bukom Refinery (Royal Dutch Shell), 500,000 bbl/d (79,000 m3/d)
Why fat has similar specific energy as gasoline?
Fat is mostly lipid. Lipid has high hydrocarbon content and thus has similar specific energy as
gasoline
How is the energy released from ATP?
Energy released from the hydrolysis of phosphoanhydride linkage
How is the energy extracted from glucose?
Respiration cellular reactions that extract energy from glucose into 30-38
ATPs (energy) and end products, CO2 and H2O
When the body is able to supply the cells with the oxygen and glucose that
they need, it carries our aerobic respiration
When the body cannot supply the cells with the oxygen needed to break
down glucose, then it has to carry out anaerobic respiration.
Energy is released without oxygen.
What is meant by respiration? What are its types and explain the differences.
Respiration cellular reactions that extract energy from glucose into 30-38
ATPs (energy) and end products, CO2 and H2O
When the body is able to supply the cells with the oxygen and glucose that
they need, it carries our aerobic respiration
When the body cannot supply the cells with the oxygen needed to break
down glucose, then it has to carry out anaerobic respiration.
Energy is released without oxygen.
What is chemiosmosis?
Chemiosmosis is the movement of ions across the membrane, more specifically, it relates
to the generation of ATP by the movement of hydrogen ions (H+) across a membrane.

Questions Lecture -10

What is a gene? How it is related to a genome?
Gene: DNA sequence that contains instructions to make a protein.

 What is the approximate length of DNA in a single human cell and what is the total length of
all DNA in all cells of the human body? Genome: The complete set of genes or genetic material
present in a cell or organism.
A single cells DNA (in 23 pairs of Chromosomes) stretches approx. 2 meters
Adult humans have about 10 trillion cells
If you stretched the DNA in all the cells out, end to end - they should stretch over 744 million
miles
The sun is 93,000,000 miles away your DNA would reach there and back about 4 times
What is a codon? How many codons code for the 20 unique amino acids?
A codon is a sequence of three DNA or RNA (triplets of) nucleotides that corresponds
with a specific amino acid or stop signal during protein synthesis. 61 codons for 20 amino
acids.
What is the role of start and stop codons?
Start and stop the process???
Explain what is DNA coding strand and DNA template strand.
Coding strand: mRNA-like strand, contains codons, these codons are translated into protein.
Template strand refers to the sequence of DNA that is copied during the synthesis of mRNA.
What is transcription in protein biosynthesis?
Transcription: Copying the coded message of the DNA in RNA called messenger RNA (mRNA)
What is the role of ribosome in translation?
Amino acids that are encoded by nucleotides in the DNA coding strand (mRNA-like strand) are
translated into protein by the ribosome
What is bioinformatics? Why is it important?
BIOINFORMATICS is the collection, classification, storage (database), and analysis of
biochemical and biological information using computers and various programs.
The raw genome sequencing data have little interest as such
Biological knowledge is important and that should be extracted from the raw data
The principal role of bioinformatics is to help the biologists in this task, particularly by
integrating data from very diverse origins (raw sequencing data, results of in silico analysis,
data from generic or specific databases, data from large-scale experiments and etc.)
Overall bioinformatics analysis saves time and resources helps understanding the data and
provides clue for designing the experiments
Explain 2 applications of bioinformatics.
??