can you draw the chemical structure for the flavor of french fries? yogurt? caramel? why are so many savory things brown, like soy sauce or steak or roasted nuts? are artificial sweeteners really that bad for you? why do you need antioxidants—what even are they, and what do they do in the body? in this class, we will connect the various food groups to different types of biological macromolecules and discuss the chemical structure of these molecules, their reactivity in the kitchen, their function and metabolism in the body, and what this all means for your everyday interactions with food. along the way, we’ll touch on many terms commonly found on nutrition labels. organic chemistry background will be provided. we may also ask for your suggestions on what to cover, in case there's some food or food fact you're itching to know the (bio)chemical details of!

in biology, we often draw enzymes and their substrates as shapes that just "fit" into each other, like a lock and key. in this class, we will instead draw the active sites and substrates of enzymes at a *molecular* level of detail, showing the individual atoms, the bonds between them, and how they interact and change as an enzyme performs its function. in particular, we will draw the chemical mechanism for how DNA polymerase synthesizes new DNA during DNA replication, as well as explain chemically why we need vitamin C to synthesize the collagen that connects our tissues. relevant organic chemistry background will be provided.