the.com/amino
The chemical handshake that lets twenty letters spell out every living thing.
means A prefix or shorthand referring to the amino group (–NH₂), the nitrogen-containing piece that, with a carboxylic acid group, defines amino acids — the building blocks of proteins.
from "Amino" traces back to ammonia, the pungent gas, whose own name comes from sal ammoniac — a salt the Romans called "sal ammoniacus," said to have been gathered near the temple of the Egyptian god Ammon (Amun) in Libya. Chemists of the 19th century carved up "ammonia" to label compounds bearing its nitrogen-hydrogen signature, and "amine" and the combining form "amino-" were born. So a word for the stuff of life still carries, buried inside it, the name of an ancient desert deity.
- alphabet
- Just 20 amino acids build nearly all life's proteins
- only nine
- Humans can't make nine, so we eat them
- left-handed
- Life chose left-handed versions almost exclusively
- meteor cargo
- Found inside meteorites, predating Earth itself
- name origin
- Means amine plus acid, two reactive groups combined
glutamic acid — most abundant amino acid in human proteins, comprises ~6.3% of all amino acids in the human body
leucine — essential amino acid, most common in muscle tissue at ~8% of total amino acids
glycine — simplest amino acid, makes up ~33% of collagen in human connective tissue