Introduction: Without carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen and phosphorus, life wouldn't exist. These are the most abundant elements in living organisms. These elements are held together by covalent bonds, ionic bonds, hydrogen bonds, and disulfide bonds.
Covalent bonds are especially strong, thus, are present in monomers, the building blocks of life. These monomers combine to make polymers, which is a long chain of monomers strung together. Biological molecules can be distinguished by their functional groups. For example, an amino group is present in amino acids, and a carboxyl group can always be found in fatty acids. The groups can be separated into two more categories, the polar, hydrophilic, and the nonpolar, hydrophobic. A fatty acid is nonpolar, hence it doesn't mix with water. Molecules of a certain class have similar chemical properties because they
have the same functional groups. A chemical test that is sensitive to these groups can be used to identify molecules that are in that class. …
