Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Adenine and my Organic UFO


Since I'm still working on my Organic Chemistry Quilt, I decided that this will be my April finish goal (since I didn't finish it in March) for "A Lovely Year of Finishes" link up.  I'm also linking up with WIP Wed, since it is still a WIP ;-).  Below is the half-quilted quilt.

I also decided that it'd be fun to highlight my organic chemicals one by one while we all wait for this quilt to get finished!

Organic Chemistry was one of my most difficult classes in college.  It was required for a biology degree, and I'm sure glad it was, as I used a lot of it in the medical lab.  Working in the Chemistry and Special Chemistry departments in the lab gave me much better knowledge and appreciation of this science.  Organic Chemistry is, after all the chemistry of life.

For my quilt, I picked only chemicals that have these fun little hexagonal and pentagonal rings.  Each side of the pentagon or hexagon is a chemical bond.  Here's what it looks like on paper:
Adenine is one of the "nucleotides", or essential building blocks of DNA and RNA.  They're so vital to living things that I had to include them on my quilt.  There are 4 of these that make up DNA (Adenine, Cytosine, Guanine and Thymine), and 4 that make up RNA (Adenine, Cytosine, Guanine and Uracil).  These 4 DNA bases combine with a "sugar phosphate backbone" in pairs that make up the classic DNA double helix.  These long chains are then coiled up into chromosomes that are found in the nucleus of every living cell.  Pretty amazing!

Adenine is also a major component of ATP, or Adenosine Triphosphate, which is a major energy-releasing compound found in all cells. It is also used in other metabolic cellular  processes.

So that's our Organic Chemistry trivia tidbit for the day!

I'll try to do a write up on each of my quilt molecules in the days to come.

Meanwhile, if anyone can tell me how to get that awful smudge out of my digital camera, I'd really appreciate it.  The lens is clean, so I fear it's inside the camera somewhere.


16 comments:

  1. That is so fun! It draws me in especially because I may be teaching science next school year!

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  2. The quilt is just fantastic... I have a Plant and Soil Science degree, with enough Chemistry that I should have minored in it! LOL... So I just love the quilt!

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    1. Thanks, and cool about your science degree! My DH works for the Forest Service, where there are also a lot of plant and soil folks :-).

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  3. I am not showing my husband this fabulously cool quilt, because he will want one immediately. Nice work.

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  4. Cool! I never got to take chemistry but we talked a lot about DNA and RNA in Physiology and Biology.

    The smudge could be moisture. It might need to dry out in a rice "bath". I have no idea beyond that. Do you have a camera store around you could call? Like Ritz Camera.

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  5. Very cool and geeky. I did organic and inorganic chemistry at university but I must say it was not my favorite subject.

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    1. Thanks! Chemistry certainly wasn't my favorite subject either, but it is a huge part of medical lab testing (chemistry panels, etc), so I learned to appreciate it :-).

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  6. I would have probably loved Chemistry.... but in High School I had the worst instruction... How I got a passing grade in Science is beyond me???? The smudge is in the camera... boo! and unless it is an !expensive! camera, you will have to live with it. Dust and lint some how migrate into them, even though they appear to be sealed! Your quilt is coming along.

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  7. I love your quilt! Very geeky ;-) The smudge looks like you have lint or dust on your sensor. It is an easy, but very delicate thing to clean--google for directions. If you have an SLR camera and change lenses, be sure to turn your camera off before changing the lens! Some SLRs (like mine--a canon rebel xt) have a static charge on the sensor that attracts dust.

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  8. Wow! it was super cool reading your post. Organic chemistry was one of my favorite subjects in high school. Love your brilliant quilt!

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  9. As a microbiologist and a chemistry teacher I LOVE it! I've made a few science quilts too.

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  10. I love your quilt! I also have a Biology degree and Organic was one of my hardest classes...Physics I loved...go figure. Now I work in Radiology and left Organic far behind Lol.
    The thing I love about quilting is it lets my analytical perfectionist brain work in harmony with my creative side.

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  11. I love-love-love this! Amazing!

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