That is yours truly.

It all started with a very simple question from Yaya

“mom, can you tell me what is gene, DNA and Chromosome is?”

I know what is a gene, what is a DNA and what is a Chromosome. I can tell you all about genetics, autosomal dominant and recessive disorders, x linked disorders etc. But I have no idea where it all fits in a simple system. My education in India never gave importance to basic stuff. I was more likely to be asked during a viva, who discovered DNA and when than what exactly is a DNA. No doubt I learned about DNA bases, purines pure as gold etc and the difference between DNA and RNA. But I never learned the very basic.

As my children grow older and learn more stuff, I see the gaps in my knowledge.

Now, don’t get me wrong, my children don’t judge me just because I didn’t know the answer. It is I who judge myself and feel so stupid..that I studied so much, yet I know nothing.I do feel annoyed with myself that even if the teachers didn’t teach the basic stuff, I should have read and understood what it is all about instead of spending all my time rot learning.

I am now learning grade 12 biology. I bought the text book and each evening instead of reading my novels, I am reading biology. I now know fish living in fresh water has more dilute urine than their sea living counter parts and why I need to know that is irrelevant, but it is so much fun to read all that and think “really?, I didn’t know that”

And now I need help. Is there anyone here who knows organic chemistry? If you can help me with chemistry could you please mail me daofto at gmail dot com.

Edited: I can’t get the answer to this question, please help me.

samples of colourless solution of unknown ph in three test tubes. when thymolphthalein was added it was colourless, with alpha naphtholphthalein it turned blue, what would be the colour if thymol blue was added to test tube three?

I know pKa for thymolnaphthalein is 10.0 and it is colourless in acid form and blue in base form. so the sample showing no colour means it is in acidic form.

pKa for alpha naphthalein is 8 and it is yellow in acidic form and blue in base form. the sample showing blue means it’s ph is more than 8 ( am I correct to assume that?)

Pka of thymol blue is tricky..it is 2.0 with acidic form showing red and basic form showing yellow and then it has another Pka at 8.8 showing yellow at acidic form and blue at base form. I am lost here. I assume I can ignore the first part which is given to confuse me further since I know my sample has pka above 8 and below 10. So what would be the colour and how do I find out..

And yes, I regret that I should have attended classes instead of skipping classes to watch reliance cup match and Imran Khan. And see where I ended up? I didn’t learn chemistry and I didn’t get to marry Imran Khan.( pavam Imran Khan, what a great loss for him, alley?)