week 12, definitions of the chemistry of life

I read through quite a few of these links and was liking how my increased understanding of what biochemistry is was giving me a nice feeling of integration. In the past I've thought of chemistry as mildly interesting, in that you can make things that explode or make pretty colors, or grow crystals, etc., but not something that I could get really personally involved in. But these links on biochemistry got me really interested, because of my dawning awareness that this is part of healing work. Looking at living systems at the molecular level, researching diseases and trying to find cures, looking at the biochemistry of viruses, describing the molecular basis of living systems... I was thinking "OOOOH, I GET it -- now I understand why we have to study Chemistry!!!" I'm feeling like chemistry just became part of me, not this thing that some other people, who are not like me, do. Then I got to the link that says "Biochemistry is the study of molecules (e.g. proteins) in the absence of the rest of the organism." and I thought "OOOOOH, THAT's why I wasn't previously interested in chemistry!" This is how I've always seen it -- very reductionistic, just seeing the protein, and not the organism as a whole. If I look at the protein, or whatever molecule, as part of a living being, and I'm looking into it in order to try to find a way to heal this living being of a disease, then I'm way interested! And the first several links were encouraging to me, that many biochemists are looking at their work that way. I hope that biochemists are able to keep sight on the big picture, and not just muck around with their tiny little pieces of someone. This reminds me of a book I read as a kid, by Madeleine L'Engle, where the characters were somehow inside the mitochondria of their friend, who was sick, trying to heal him. That's how I'd like to envision a biochemist working on a piece of DNA or enzyme.