The class everybody loves…or hates

After writing my organic chemistry exam last semester, I was officially done with chemistry. Forever.

Never again would I see the words “valence shell” or “titration.” I’d never have to draw resonance structures or identify the chirality of a molecule. All my remaining science credits are biology courses, which is my favourite subject area. The Reign of Chemistry was over.

Kind of.

This semester I have biochemistry and I can’t decide if I hate it or love it. It’s a combination of biology, my favourite class, and chemistry, my least favourite class.

Which means that when I’m sitting in a lecture, half the time I find the material interesting and engaging, and the other half of the time I want to gouge my eyeballs out with the corner of my spiral-bound notebook.

I’d love to know the origins of biochemistry. Was it created by a thoughtful biology professor who wanted to make chemistry more interesting than usual? Or was it created by a bitter chemistry professor who wanted to make biology more boring than usual?

It’s kind of like the university version of a lame cartoon-crossover.

Except instead of combining The Flintstones and The Jetsons, it’s combining thermodynamics and living organisms.

-Photo courtesy of Alicia Nijdam