Molecules: Can’t Live With Them, Wouldn’t Exist Without Them

I have a confession: I really hate Molecular Mondays. Chemistry was my worst subject in school, and it’s still not exactly fun for me today.

Last year, I started writing this Molecular Mondays series as a way to force myself to do a little chemistry research. I agonized my way through a long chain of posts on oxidation/reduction and an even longer chain on the assorted properties of water. I also studied sulfuric acid on Venus, hydrogen peroxide on Mars, and platinum group metals in the asteroid belt.

I’m still trying to figure out my writing plans for 2016. I was secretly hoping I could quietly cancel Molecular Mondays and never have to do chemistry research again! But as much as I hate this series, I cannot deny that I’ve learned something from it.

Having at least a basic understanding of chemistry makes many other aspects of science easier to follow. A lot of things that used to go right over my head now make sense to me. When I read scientific papers, I get a whole lot more out of them.

So I have decided (grudgingly) to keep Molecular Mondays going. And thanks to a few papers I recently tried to read (and failed to understand) concerning life on Titan, I think I know what my next research focus needs to be.

So get ready. Two weeks from today, we’re going to start meeting the amino acids.

P.S.: And at some point in the more distant future, once I know what the heck I’m talking about regarding amino acids, I promise to revisit Titan and see if anyone’s home.