SOME IMPORTANT FACTS ABOUT BIOLOGY

**In the year 1817, Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner, a German chemist, tried to arrange the elements with similar properties into groups. He identified some groups having three elements each. So he called these groups ‘triads’.

**In 1866, John Newlands, an English scientist, arranged the then known elements in the order of increasing atomic masses. He started with the element having the lowest atomic mass (hydrogen) and ended at thorium which was the 56^th element. He found that every eighth element had properties similar to that of the first. He compared this to the octaves found in music. Therefore, he called it the ‘Law of Octaves’.

**The main credit for classifying elements goes to Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeléev, a Russian chemist.

**On this basis, Mendeléev formulated a Periodic Law, which states that ‘the properties of elements are the periodic function of their atomic masses’.

**In 1913, Henry Moseley showed that the atomic number of an element is a more fundamental property than its atomic mass as described below.:: ‘Properties of elements are a periodic function of their atomic number.’

**Atomic radius decreases in moving from left to right along a period. This is due to an increase in nuclear charge which tends to pull the electrons closer to the nucleus and reduces the size of the atom.

**Metals like Na and Mg are towards the left-hand side of the Periodic Table while the non-metals like sulphur and chlorine are found on the right-hand side.

**Oxides of metals are basic and that of non-metals are acidic in general.

**Mendel used a number of contrasting visible characters of garden peas – round/wrinkled seeds, tall/short plants, white/violet flowers and so on.

**Most human chromosomes have a maternal and a paternal copy, and we have 22 such pairs. But one pair, called the sex chromosomes, is odd in not always being a perfect pair. Women have a perfect pair of sex chromosomes, both called X. But men have a mismatched pair in which one is a normal-sized X while the other is a short one called Y. So women are XX, while men are XY.

**A child who inherits an X chromosome from her father will be a girl, and one who inherits a Y chromosome from him will be a boy.

**The basic structure of the limbs is similar though it has been modified to perform different functions in various vertebrates. Such a homologous characteristic helps to identify an evolutionary relationship between apparently different species. The designs of the two wings(bats/birds), their structure and components, are thus very different. They look similar because they have a common use for flying, but their origins are not common. This makes them analogous characteristics, rather than homologous characteristics.

**Alkaline potassium permanganate or acidified potassium dichromate are oxidising alcohols to acids, that is, adding oxygen to the starting material. Hence they are known as oxidising agents.

**Unsaturated hydrocarbons add hydrogen in the presence of catalysts such as palladium or nickel to give saturated hydrocarbons. Catalysts are substances that cause a reaction to occur or proceed at a different rate without the reaction itself being affected. This reaction is commonly used in the hydrogenation of vegetable oils using a nickel catalyst. VegeTable oils generally have long unsaturated carbon chains while animal fats have saturated carbon chains. Animal fats generally contain saturated fatty acids which are said to be harmful for health.

**Saturated hydrocarbons are fairly unreactive and are inert in the presence of most reagents. However, in the presence of sunlight, chlorine is added to hydrocarbons in a very fast reaction. Chlorine can replace the hydrogen atoms one by one.

**Ethanol is commonly called alcohol and is the active ingredient of all alcoholic drinks. In addition, because it is a good solvent, it is also used in medicines such as tincture iodine, cough syrups, and many tonics. Ethanol is also soluble in water in all proportions. Consumption of small quantities of dilute ethanol causes drunkenness. However, intake of even a small quantity of pure ethanol (called absolute alcohol) can be lethal.

**Unlike ethanol, intake of methanol in very small quantities can cause death. Methanol is oxidised to methanal in the liver. Methanal reacts rapidly with the components of cells. It causes the protoplasm to get coagulated, in much the same way an egg is coagulated by cooking. Methanol also affects the optic nerve, causing blindness.

**Sugarcane plants are one of the most efficient convertors of sunlight into chemical energy. Sugarcane juice can be used to prepare molasses which is fermented to give alcohol (ethanol). Some countries now use alcohol as an additive in petrol since it is a cleaner fuel which gives rise to only carbon dioxide and water on burning in sufficient air (oxygen).

**The molecules of soap are sodium or potassium salts of long-chain carboxylic acids. The ionic-end of soap dissolves in water while the carbon chain dissolves in oil. The soap molecules, thus form structures called micelles where one end of the molecules is towards the oil droplet while the ionic-end faces outside. This forms an emulsion in water.

**This is caused by the reaction of soap with the calcium and magnesium salts, which cause the hardness of water. This problem is overcome by using another class of compounds called detergents as cleansing agents. Detergents are generally ammonium or sulphonate salts of long chain carboxylic acids. The charged ends of these compounds do not form insoluble precipitates with the calcium and magnesium ions in hard water.