In this chapter, you will be introduced to the carbon compounds known as carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids, which are important to the reactions that maintain life. The structure and function of DNA and RNA are introduced as an effective system for the manufacture of proteins.

In this chapter, you will learn: to explain why the sun is the ultimate source of energy for life on Earth to explain how energy is stored and used in biochemical reactions to describe the chemical composition and functions of carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids to identify different types of vitamins and their metabolic functions