Science explained, with a song in mind
These pages explain the science topics that students most often meet in introductory biochemistry, physiology, physics, chemistry and statistics courses. Each one ends with a memory aid and a short verse you can sing to a tune you already know.
Why each page has a verse
A song will not teach you biochemistry by itself. What the research suggests is narrower and more useful: a simple melody that you repeat can help you hold on to an ordered list (the ten steps of glycolysis, the eight intermediates of the Krebs cycle) once you already understand what the list means. So every page here starts with the explanation, built from open textbooks and cited sources, and only then gives you a memory hook. The verses are new lyrics written for this site and set to old public-domain tunes such as Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and Frère Jacques, so anyone can sing them, record them or use them in class.
The best way to use a page: read the explanation, try the "Check yourself" questions without looking, then sing the verse a few times over the next several days and test yourself again. Spaced self-testing does more for memory than rereading, and the song gives you a quick way to rehearse. For more on what the evidence does and does not show, see why songs can help you learn; for other tricks, see memory tricks for science.
About these addresses. The pages at these addresses once held the recordings of the Seattle band Science Groove; the band's own history is now at faculty.washington.edu/crowther/Misc/Songs/Science-Groove. This site is an independent educational project and is not the band. The explanations and verses here are new and do not reproduce the band's songs.
The topics
The pages run roughly from cell energy (glycolysis, the Krebs cycle, the electron transport chain), through muscle and the atomic nucleus, to the magnetic resonance techniques used in chemistry labs and hospitals, and then to the reasoning tools every scientist needs: the scientific method, logic, hypothesis tests, likelihood, family studies in genetics and giving a talk about your results.
- GlycolysisThe 10 steps of glycolysis in two phases, the key enzymes, why the net yield is 2 ATP, 2 NADH and 2 pyruvate, how PFK-1 controls it, and what happens to pyruvate.
- Krebs cycleThe citric acid cycle in order: the link reaction, the 8 intermediates and enzymes, and the yield per acetyl-CoA (3 NADH, 1 FADH₂, 1 GTP or ATP, 2 CO₂) and per glucose.
- Electron transport chainHow complexes I–IV, coenzyme Q and cytochrome c pump protons, how ATP synthase uses the gradient, P/O ratios of about 2.5 and 1.5, and why ATP-per-glucose figures differ.
- Muscle contractionSarcomere bands, actin and myosin, the cross-bridge cycle and ATP's two jobs, calcium with troponin and tropomyosin, excitation–contraction coupling and rigor mortis.
- Atomic nucleusHow small and dense the nucleus is, atomic vs mass number, isotopes, the strong force and binding energy, alpha, beta and gamma decay, and half-life with worked numbers.
- NMR spectroscopyHow NMR works: nuclear spin, the magnet and resonance frequency, chemical shift in ppm and shielding, the n+1 splitting rule, and integration in ¹H and ¹³C spectra.
- MRI relaxationHow MRI turns proton spins into pictures: RF pulses, T1 recovery, T2 and T2* decay, TR and TE, what looks bright on T1 and T2 images, spin vs gradient echo, and safety.
- Scientific methodThe steps of the scientific method from observation to replication, why it is a cycle not a recipe, falsifiable hypotheses, controls and variables, and a worked example.
- Necessary vs sufficientWhat necessary and sufficient conditions mean, how they map onto if–then statements, converse and contrapositive, common logic errors, and examples from medicine.
- Null hypothesis and p-valuesWhat H0 and H1 are, what a p-value really means (and does not, per the 2016 ASA statement), Type I and II errors, power, effect sizes, intervals and test assumptions.
- Likelihood vs probabilityProbability fixes the parameter and asks about data; likelihood fixes the data and compares parameters. A worked coin example, maximum likelihood, ratios and Bayes.
- Linkage and sib pairsHow markers, linkage and LOD scores (threshold 3), affected sib-pair IBD sharing (25/50/25) and the sibling risk ratio λs found genes, and why GWAS took over.
- Giving a science talkA practical guide to a short science talk: title slide, outline, one message per slide, readable figures, brief methods, honest limitations, timing and questions.