KEY TAKEAWAYS •
Water is the universal solvent because it has many properties that allow it to be used in biological systems.
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Ions are involved in ionic bonding because of the inequality that exists with regard to holding onto electrons between the cation and anion.
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Covalent bonds are extremely strong and exist when two atoms roughly equally share electrons in a shared orbital.
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Hydrogen bonds are weak bonds between two atoms or molecules that are slightly polar and therefore attract each other.
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There are several core molecules in biochemistry, including carbohydrates, proteins, and nucleic acids.
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There are different reactions that can occur in biological systems, including acidbase, hydrolysis, dehydration, and redox reactions.
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Enzymes reduce the activation energy of a reaction so that the reaction can more easily occur, even though the starting and ending energies will be the same as without the enzyme.
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