<p>I've never had a good firm background in chemistry (bad high school classes, college classes not really that educational). I want to do research in biology, and therefore I need to have this kind of knowledge. I mean, I really want to learn the chemistry, not just in terms of "books-smarts" or for some exam. Can anybody suggest anything?</p>
<p>If you are still in college, you might want to take a physiology class. It wasn’t until that class that concepts of pH, buffers, electron pushing, substitution reactions etc were really cemented in my mind.</p>
<p>It depends. Often times, research will make VERY little use of chemistry.</p>
<p>I worked in genetics labs and am working in a virology lab. I don’t rlly need to know any chemistry.</p>
<p>It will be different for research in biochem, tox, etc.</p>
<p>A physiology class won’t necessarily help either. Most biology researchers will make use of next to none of the material they learned in physical or organic chem.</p>
<p>However, there is basic chemistry that would be nice to know for many biologists. This includes chemical equilibria, basic chemical kinetics and rxn rates, concept of reversibility, titration, pH + buffers, and a few other things. But again, it depends on the field and most bio researchers still don’t use this knowledge.</p>
<p>However, most of the basic concepts are implanted in your mind once you take any university level biochem crse or organic/physical chem crse. Even the most basic college level courses should suffice.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about the stuff you forget because you can pick that up on a need to know basis when you do the research.</p>
<p>It is a diff story when ur working in chemistry heavy fields like proteomics.</p>