Chemistry is a Part of Life Essay Example for Free

Chemistry is a Part of Life Essay For you to understand my personal importance placed on chemistry, you would first need to understand who I am in reference to chemistry. So for starters I am a Christian, second a human, third a survivor, and fourth a biochemist. These parts are what make chemistry personally important. Now that you know who I am in reference to chemistry, I now explain for understanding purposes why. As a Christian chemistry is an important part to me. I can only explain the significance using Genesis 2:7 – â€Å"And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being,† (2011). Chemistry is all around us, in the air, the ground, and in the body. God took the elements in the form of atoms from the ground and used them to form man; he also used them to put life or air into the nostrils of man. I could only imagine the amount and types of elements God placed into the form of man. And because of scientific advances you and I could somewhat grasp the idea that â€Å"96% of the mass of the human body is made of four elements: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen; with a lot of that in the form of water,† (Schirber, 2009). However in the human body â€Å"we don’t look at them as single elements but as elements wrapped up into a compound,† (Schirber, 2009). The human consumes these same elements from the foods from the ground and the food from animals on the Earth. So clichà ©, you are what you eat. As a human this aspect of chemistry allows me to become a survivor. As a human I was able to survive, and through chemistry my survival has been sustained. This started June of 1992, I was not even a year old and as a toddler I was active, however my body would not allow me to play for extended periods of time like most toddlers. As a human my body was using its chemical signals to alert my brain that not enough oxygen was reaching other organs and such, so it forced me to rest more often than most. Later in June of 1993, my parents were told that I would need repair surgery for my heart valve. It seemed that my heart acquired a whole after birth that did not close as I aged, and with being an active toddler I put a strain on the whole opening making it increase in size as I engaged in physical activities. This damaged my mitral valve (the main valve to allow blood into the heart), and when doctors opened up for surgery they realized the extent of the damage on the mitral valve; it was beyond repair. Already for surgery the doctor made a quick and biologically sound decision to replace my lost heart valve with a titanium prosthetic heart valve. Reason for being a biologically sound decision is due to titanium’s medical benefits (Schank, 2012): * Strong * Lightweight * Corrosion Resistant * Biocompatible (non-toxic AND not rejected by the body) * Long-lasting * Non-ferromagnetic * Flexibility and elasticity rivals that of human bone This is when chemistry met biology for me. And 18 yrs. and 7 months after my surgery I am still ticking – the sound made by the titanium parts opening and closing as my heart beats. My biochemical encounter not only saved my life, but it also sustains it through the use of medicine that aids my blood in passing through the titanium mechanism. â€Å"Mechanical valves, which are made of biomaterials, may last a long time. However the patient with a mechanical valve must use an anticoagulant medication such as warfarin (Coumadin, Panwarfin) for the rest of life to prevent blood clots from forming on the valve. If a blood clot forms on the valve, the valve won’t work properly. If a clot escapes the valve, it could lodge in an artery to the brain, blocking blood flow to the brain and causing a stroke,† (Yi-Ren Woo, Carlos Rosario, and Prof. Pablo Cà ¡ceres; 2003).This is where chemistry, along with biology influenced me to become a biochemist. And my reason for choosing that profession is some on needs to come up with a way to make warfarin taste better as well as all the other cough and cold medicines for adults as well as children. So reader with this I hope you are able to understand that to me CHEMISTRY is IMPORTANT, because without it my life would not have begun, continued, or still sustaining today. Work Cited Schank, Craig. Titanium: The Medical Metal of Choice. Titanium Specialist†¦SuperAlloy.com. Super Alloy Inc.: 2012. Web. 26 Apr. 2012. http://www.supraalloys.com/medical-titanium.php. Schirber, Michael. The Chemistry of Life: The Human Body. Live Science. 16 Apr. 2009.Web. 26 Apr. 2012. http://www.livescience.com/3505-chemistry-life-human-body.html. THE HOLY BIBLE. NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION ®, NIV ®. Biblica, Inc.: 2011. Print. Woo, Yi-Ren; Carlos Rosario; and Prof. Pablo Cà ¡ceres. BIOMECHANICS OF MECHANICAL HEART VALVE. Applications of Engineering Mechanics in Medicine. December 2003. Web. 26 Apr. 2012. http://academic.uprm.edu/~mgoyal/materialsdec2003/a03heartvalve.pdf.