The Lighter Side

Henderson Hasselbalch (To the Tune of ‘‘My Country ‘Tis of Thee’’)*hS

Received for publication, April 2, 2012

Kevin Ahern‡

From the Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331

Henderson HasselbalchYou put my brain in shockOh woe is meThe pKa’s can makeMe lie in bed awakeThey give me really bad headachesOh hear my plea

Salt - acid RA-ti-osHelp keep the pH frozeBy buf-fer-INGThey show tenacityComplete audacityIf used within capacityTo maintain things

I know when H’s flyA buffer will defyThem activelyThose protons cannot waltzWhen they get bound to saltsWith this the change in pH haltsAll praise to thee

Thus now that I’ve addressedThis topic for the testI’ve got know-howThe pH I can sayEquals the pKAIn sum with log of S o’er A*I know it now

* S o’er A refers to [Salt]/[Acid]

hS Additional Supporting Information may be found in theonline version of this article.

*Copyright � 2011 Kevin Ahern‡ To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:

ahernk@orst.edu.

This paper is available on line at http://www.bambed.org DOI 10.1002/bmb.206351

Q 2012 by The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology BIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY EDUCATION

Vol. 00, No. 00, pp. 000, 2012