January 28, 2012

Biochemistry of Life..

Posted by maithili at 12:45 PM
            While I m most of the time whining about the long hours of college, today I got something to share with you Darlings. It is nothing you must not have heard of but yet the way it was put was novel. Atleast in a class of biochemistry it is rare to stumble upon such ideas.
            We were studying glycolysis. For layman- breakdown of glucose to obtain energy. Now this teacher of ours has a passion for teaching. He uses funny examples and analogies to make his point. He also spends a lot of time talking about life. He was done teaching us the various steps in the long chain and then the cycle called Kreb's cycle. We had learnt the enzymes, structures and mathematics of energy. At the end of it he said, " All this for just 34% energy. We get only 34% from this longggg chain of events. Could there be scope for evolution? Maybe we could use 100% someday!"
            His words made us think. Could it be possible? Are we breaking down our glucose better than our ancestors and could our successors use glucose in a better way? 
            He looked at our faces and then said, "In life everyone thinks about having a perfect life partner. The girls will have a role model. She would want her life partner to be good looking, romantic and all that her filmy hero does. The boys will have a picture of a girl in their thoughts. He will want the girl to fit in that image. But do we all end up with that kind of a person as our life partner? What does all of us ultimately want? That whoever your life partner maybe, he should be with you through all the ups and downs of life. Even if the guy goes bald his life partner should still love him. Even if the girl starts aging or growing fat , her life partner should still say "you are beautiful" even if it is a lie! Because at the end of your day, you want your life partner to be yours and to be with you always. If you go for someone superficial and one who is much much better than you, then you will someday feel that you are inferior or you will always be insecure. He might leave you for someone better looking right? 
            We were wondering what the connection was between his question and the sudden romantic discussion. 
            "There were many life forms which acted smart and went for a more efficient and shorter system to use up glucose but they couldn't stand the test of time. We evolved from a single cell. Number of cells decided to work together and went on to make tissues, organs and later organisms if I may call so. We followed this system and we survived. Eventually it was not about who did the best, it was about who managed to stay for long and we did. Not necessary that everything that looks better will last better." 
             Couldn't help marvelling and the simplicity and exactness of the answer and his comparison with life! 
Yea I know, this teacher rocks!!        

5 comments:

Deeksha on January 28, 2012 at 1:21 PM said...

What a perfectly beautiful explanation..our biochem prof who taught us was as crazy as it can get..and we just rattafied the whole thing :p but to think of this now,it actually makes perfect sense :)

Divya on January 28, 2012 at 4:58 PM said...

Kudos to the Professor. I don't remember the last time I had read / come across somebody who gave such a wonderful analogy :)
Good one :)

Aathira Nair on January 28, 2012 at 6:40 PM said...

Very interesting look at life :)
Its great to be taught by goood profs.

Smita on February 6, 2012 at 3:41 PM said...

lollllll!!
superb teacher you have!
loved his way of explaining and the whole connection of how one should chose a life partner with the evolution of humans!!!
lol

Aditi Ray on February 9, 2012 at 7:24 PM said...

Kudos to the prof..!!
I too hav had some amazing teachers in life.. but this one really rocks it mann...!! :D

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