What is biochemistry, and how does it differ from the fields of genetics, biology, chemistry, and molecular biology

Biochemistry is the study of life in its chemical processes. This discipline emerged at the beginning of the 20^th century. Scientists began to combined chemistry, physiology and biology to investigate the chemistry of living organisms. It is seen as a life science and chemical science because it explores the chemistry within living organism.

Biochemistry is branched off from biology, chemistry, and now genetics. When comparing biology and biochemistry, picture them as micro and macro levels of life science.

At the Macro level Biology is the study of life and living organism, researching from the molecular and larger. Biologist's will look at these molecules and see how they interact with one another but focus on how they perform cellular tasks within an organism. They focus on their structure, function, growth, origin, and how they evolved in their biological system.

At the micro level, Biochemist's looks at how electrons, atoms, and molecules behave in biological systems, researching at the molecular level and smaller. Focusing on , structure, function, origin, and formation of molecules at the micro level.

Chemistry is the scientific study of matter, its properties, and interactions with other matter and energy. Biochemistry was branched off from chemistry because it looks at organic molecules of the periodic table and they relate and interact within biological systems.

Genetics is the study common traits within organism from previous generations. Common traits are described by genetic information carried by the molecule DNA. This is where the blueprints for constructing and operating an organism are contained. All living things contain DNA and biochemistry uses this knowledge to understand how molecules are formed within organisms. Biochemist’s want to learn the structure and function of cellular components like proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, nucleic acids, and other molecules within a biological system.

http://chemistry.about.com/od/chemistry101/a/basics.htm

http://www.medhelp.org/medical-information/show/1217/Genetics