Question

All life that we know of is based on carbon. Carbon's ability to form many chemical bonds is an important characteristic that allows it to form the basis of life. Identify two other elements that can probably also form a large number of bonds and that probably have similar properties to carbon.

Answer 1

Starch and cellulose have the same substance but different structures. They are both polysaccharides. The basic unit of a polysaccharide is the glucose. Glucose, which contains carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, have two forms. The alpha-glucose with an alcohol group attached to carbon 1 is down and the beta-glucose with the alcohol group attached to carbon 1 is up. Starch is the alpha-glucose while cellulose is the beta-glucose. Starches are linked into a straight chain whereas the cellulose are connected like a pile of stack paper. When the human body eats starch, it can digest the starch but not the cellulose because it has no enzyme that can break it down.