Terms for Chemical Reactions That Take Place in an Organism

Chemical processes in organic beings are crucial to survival and various functions of the body. Organisms typically do not have any control over these chemical reactions. Different types of chemical reactions can be affected by hormones, brain activity, organ activity, or enzymes in the body. External factors can also play a part, such as food consumption and air quality.

Metabolism

• Metabolism occurs when enzymes and hormones change food to fuel for an organism. Metabolism affects how efficiently that fuel is used since this chemical reaction determines how fast a body burns calories and how likely that body is to lose or gain weight. Metabolism typically runs faster in bodies with more mass because the system must work harder to support larger figures. Exercise and a healthy diet can increase an organism's metabolism.

Halogenation

• Halogenation is a chemical process that occurs when hydrogen atoms are replaced by a halogen in an organic compound. Halogens consist of the elements fluorine, iodine, bromine, and chlorine. The halogenation of an alkane is qualified as a substitution reaction. Energy input from light or heat is crucial for halogenation to occur; if light sets off the reaction, thousands of molecules react for each photon of light absorbed by the atom.

Radical Addition

• Radical addition occurs when a "weak O-O bond of a peroxide initiator is broken homolytically by thermal or hight energy," according to the Michigan State University Department of Chemistry. The leftover radical can take a hydrogen atom from an HBr compound and extract yet another hydrogen atom from elsewhere to create alkyl bromide and another bromide atom. A form of radical addition is polymerization, which creates the chainlike or network molecules that allow life to exist.