Amino acids are the building blocks that form polypeptides and ultimately proteins. Consequently, they are fundamental components of our bodies and vital for physiological functions such as protein ...

This image illustrates the general structure of an amino acid.The central carbon atom (C) is bonded to a hydrogen atom (H), an amino group (NH2), a carboxyl group (COOH), and a variable side chain (R ...

A common mineral, α-alumina, found abundantly in Earth's crust, may have played a critical role in initiating the chemical ...

The sequence of amino acids in the chain determines how the ... form attachments and interact with many other molecules and structures inside organisms. The shape of a protein determines what ...

Unlike Africa and much of Eurasia, where there was a long adjustment period as human tool kits and social structures evolved ... reconstructions based on amino acid racemization. The dots on the map ...

Proteins form the structural and functional backbone of the cell, and any perturbation in their synthesis can disrupt normal ...

Today researchers know that proteins are long polymers made out of a set of twenty small constituents called amino acids (Figure 1 ... but energetically minimal structures, and only one of ...