Alexander Kobulnicky

Glucose
11” x 14”
Acrylic on canvas
2010
$300

The most biologically significant carbohydrate, glucose is a protean energy source and storage medium for all kinds of organisms. Glucose is solid and crystalline at room temperature, but in the presence of water readily converts to a syrup, and corn syrup is the form in which glucose is familiar to most people. Corn syrup is valued for its properties in cooking and candy-making, added to sugar syrups to soften their texture, prevent the formation of crystals, and moderate their sweetness.

In biology, glucose is the building block of both starch, a repository of chemical energy in plants, and cellulose, an indigestible and largely impervious compound used in the cell walls of plants as a structural element. In humans, glucose is the chief carbohydrate used in cellular respiration, reacting with oxygen in the mitochondria to provide the majority of the body’s energy. Consequently, a steady supply of glucose is essential to the body’s proper functioning. Too much glucose in the bloodstream, however, is the characteristic symptom of diabetes, and is typically related to a breakdown in the insulin system.

Glucose is shown here in the beta-pyranose conformation, the most common isomer in aqueous solution at neutral pH.

These molecules are rendered as space-filling models, in a natural, low-energy conformation, and displayed from an angle that shows off as much of their structure as possible. The atoms are color-coded, with carbon being black, hydrogen white, and oxygen red. They are painted in artist-quality acrylics, on gessoed canvas