My text has a review of some chemistry before getting into the biology bit. I have come to a question "what are 3 characteristics/features of an organic compound." My book seems to only have the general they all have carbon. The rest goes into depth about the different classes and hydrocarbons and stuff. Can anyone tell me some cool stuff about organic compounds other than they have carbon? Or, point me to a site with this info?

Question

My text has a review of some chemistry before getting into the biology bit.  I have come to a question "what are 3 characteristics/features of an organic compound."  My book seems to only have the general they all have carbon.  The rest goes into depth about the different classes and hydrocarbons and stuff.  Can anyone tell me some cool stuff about organic compounds other than they have carbon?  Or, point me to a site with this info?

PsyDAG · Answer

Since this is not my area of expertise, I searched Google under the key words "organic compounds" to get these possible sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_compound
http://library.thinkquest.org/3659/orgchem/organicchemistry.html
http://www.chemguide.co.uk/orgpropsmenu.html
http://encyclopedia.farlex.com/Organic+compounds
http://www.cem.msu.edu/~reusch/VirtTxtJml/nomen1.htm

In the future, you can find the information you desire more quickly, if you use appropriate key words to do your own search.

I hope this helps. Thanks for asking.