Enzymes: Differences between a Biologists and a Chemists Perspective

Abstract

The interdependence of the development of thought and practice in the present scientific study of living organisms and of chemical substance that constitute their anatomical structures are widely acknowledged but often derided. One such interdependence exists between biology and chemistry. These interplays are particularly evident in the development of chemical and biological knowledge that has influenced the chemical study of enzymes, proteins, and nucleic acids and their biological role in such processes as fermentation, respiration, photosynthesis, motion, metabolic change, and expression of hereditary characters, and the regulation of physiological pathways. Furthermore fields such as biochemistry and molecular biology have emerged as major scientific disciplines from the interplay of chemical and biological ideas and practice. Throughout the interplay professional biologists and chemists have frequently studied the same problem at the same time, but with different preconceptions, different methods and have described the same discoveries from different perspectives. This experiment involves the interviewing of biologists and chemists and asking them to design an experiment that involves enzymes. To observe the different perspective biologists and chemists have of the same enzyme, all participants are given the same enzyme and a set of conditions and are asked to design an experiment and hypothesize outcomes. Based on the responses a deeper understanding of how biologists and chemists study enzymes in search of not only understanding the nature of enzymes but also in how they differ in the way they search for an enzymes use in development of treatments for diseases.