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Explore the molecular composition of living organisms in this historic Christmas Lecture from 1980, where biochemist David Phillips moves beyond the classic riddle of "which came first, the chicken or the egg?" to examine what both are actually made of at the molecular level. Discover how proteins function as three-dimensional jigsaw puzzles, with component parts fitting together to form compact structures that carry out various biological tasks. Learn about collagen, the rope-like protein that forms the foundation of skin, bone, and tendons through its helical spiral staircase structure, and understand how its amino acid sequence determines the properties of these tissues. Examine keratin, the protein responsible for hair and nails, which forms a different type of helix that can stretch to create silk-like structures. Delve into the fundamental building blocks of life - proteins and nucleic acids - and begin to understand how the chemical structure of molecules directly influences their biological function and the properties of living tissues.
