This is heme. It's part of hemoglobin (well, actually just attached to hemoglobin, which from now on will be abbreviated Hgb, by the way), the protein that carries oxygen and carbon dioxide in your blood and ushers it where it needs to go. Gorgeous, no? The whole Hgb protein is even more impressive; this is just the metalloprotein accessory group that makes the whole shebang possible. See, Fe (iron) likes to bind oxygen, but oxygen likes to (duh) oxidize things, including iron. So what's an aerobically respiring organism to do? Bind the whole thing up in a protein environment (ie, the interior of an Hgb protein--not a molecule, by the way, because it's made up of four individual parts. It's called a tetramer, from tetra for four--again the geniuses with the dead languages thinking no one will know what they're up to) where oxygen is prevented from oxidizing anything. Seriously, google hemoglobin. I urge you. Even if only to look at the pretty pictures. Just think--right now YOU are producing that. You, sitting there in front of the computer with your bag of potato chips (and, somewhat ironically, a diet Coke) are spinning out these amazingly complicated, intricately turned proteins. Damn. More on the coolness of Hgb to come.
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