Chapter 2. The Chemical Nature of Life

Analyze the Data

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_feedback: Biomolecules are relatively easy to synthesize from inorganic starting materials, which suggests that living and nonliving matter are not fundamentally different. Living matter is subject to the same laws of physics and chemistry that govern nonliving matter. The fact that biomolecules can be produced through nonliving, chemical processes suggests that life itself could have evolved by similar means. Biochemistry attempts to describe the mechanisms that give rise to living systems from the perspective of the molecules that make up living things. We can often gain considerable insight into the properties of a living thing by studying the structure and chemistry of its molecules.