Enzymes

In Our Time: Science

BBC

History

4.5 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 1 June 2017

⏱️ 49 minutes

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss enzymes, the proteins that control the speed of chemical reactions in living organisms. Without enzymes, these reactions would take place too slowly to keep organisms alive: with their actions as catalysts, changes which might otherwise take millions of years can happen hundreds of times a second. Some enzymes break down large molecules into smaller ones, like the ones in human intestines, while others use small molecules to build up larger, complex ones, such as those that make DNA. Enzymes also help keep cell growth under control, by regulating the time for cells to live and their time to die, and provide a way for cells to communicate with each other. With Nigel Richards Professor of Biological Chemistry at Cardiff University Sarah Barry Lecturer in Chemical Biology at King's College London And Jim Naismith Director of the Research Complex at Harwell Bishop Wardlaw Professor of Chemical Biology at the University of St Andrews Professor of Structural Biology at the University of Oxford Producer: Simon Tillotson.

Transcript

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0:52.0	I hope you enjoy the programs.
0:54.0	Hello enzymes are essential to life.
0:56.4	Their proteins found throughout our bodies and all living organisms
0:59.8	and their role is to increase the speed of chemical reactions. In our guts, our
1:03.9	brains, our lungs, throughout our bodies, they enable reactions up to thousands of
1:07.9	times a second. Reactions we might otherwise not happen even in the lifetime
1:12.1	of the universe.
1:13.0	Enzymes were noticed first in yeast, in bread-making and brewing.
1:17.0	The name comes from the Greek in yeast.
1:19.0	And for over a century, Wonder Bell Prize after another has been awarded to scientists who have helped
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