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Lego bricks and the octet rule: Molecular models for biochemical pathways with plastic, interlocking toy bricks
Author(s) -
Lin Henry J.,
Lehoang Jennifer,
Kwan Isabel,
Baghaee Anita,
Prasad Priya,
HaChen Stephanie J.,
Moss Tanesha,
Woods Jeremy D.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
biochemistry and molecular biology education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.34
H-Index - 39
eISSN - 1539-3429
pISSN - 1470-8175
DOI - 10.1002/bmb.21090
Subject(s) - brick , molecule , octet , chemistry , carbon fibers , nanotechnology , materials science , physics , organic chemistry , composite material , composite number , baryon , particle physics
The 8 studs on a 2 × 4 Lego brick conveniently represent the outer shell of electrons for carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen atoms. We used Lego bricks to model these atoms, which are then joined together to form molecules by following the Lewis octet rule. A variety of small biological molecules can be modeled in this way, such as most amino acids, fatty acids, glucose, and various intermediate metabolites. Model building with these familiar toys can be a helpful, hands‐on exercise for learning—or re‐learning—biochemical pathways. © 2017 by The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 46(1):54–57, 2018.