Easy like Sunday morning: Enzymes and hormones! Premium

The Hindu Sunday quiz on ‘Enzymes and hormones!’ by Berty Ashley

1. Born November 19 in 1887, James Sumner was an American chemist awarded the 1946 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He got it for discovering that enzymes can be crystallised. As part of his research, he also experimentally proved that an enzyme is a particular kind of compound. What did Sumner prove?

2. Born November 19 in 1915, Earl Wilbur Sutherland Jr. was an American biochemist awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1971. He won it for the discovery of the mechanisms of the action of hormones. He worked with epinephrine, which is a hormone that plays an important role in the fight-or-flight response. By what other name do we know this hormone, which can be used to treat allergic reactions?

3. Hormones are released directly into the bloodstream by glands known as endocrine glands. Exocrine glands release their products through a duct. For example, salivary glands and sweat glands. There is only one organ which acts as both, and releases hormones such as insulin and digestive enzymes via ducts into the intestine. Which organ is this?

4. Osteocalcin is a hormone that was discovered in the 1970s and was considered to keep blood sugar levels in check, burn fat and maintain brain function. It is theorised that the hormone was responsible for evolving a stronger skeletal system. Unlike other hormones usually made by glands, where is this hormone made?

5. Melatonin is a hormone released in the brain at night, which controls the sleep-wake cycle. An imbalance in it causes changes to the biological clock, which leads to lack of sleep. Light at 460–480 nm, which has a blue tinge, suppresses melatonin synthesis. What technological innovation is responsible for humans having trouble sleeping nowadays?

6. Calciferol is a compound which plays an imperative role in regulating calcium and phosphorus levels in the body. It is also a hormone by definition, as the body synthesises it after sun exposure and it is activated by the liver and kidneys. How better do we know calciferol, which one can absorb by standing in the early morning sun?

7. The hippocampus is a vital part of the brain responsible for controlling memory. It also produces the growth hormone, which plays a huge role in human development. The hippocampus is so named because of its resemblance to a sea creature. What animal is this in which, uniquely, the father gives birth?