Short answers, pulled from the story.
Jöns Jacob Berzelius named proteins in 1838 by deriving the term from a Greek word meaning primary or standing in front. Earlier researchers like Antoine Fourcroy had called these materials albumins since the 1700s.
Scientists established this understanding on the 2nd of May 1902 when Franz Hofmeister and Hermann Emil Fischer defined polypeptides as linear chains. Each residue connects to its neighbor via peptide bonds between amino and carboxyl groups.
Biochemists describe primary structure as the specific sequence of amino acids within the chain. Secondary structures emerge as regular local patterns stabilized by hydrogen bonds such as alpha helices and beta sheets. Tertiary structure defines the overall three-dimensional shape while quaternary structure describes complexes formed when multiple polypeptide subunits associate.
Prokaryotes synthesize proteins faster reaching up to twenty residues per second. Eukaryotic cells move mature mRNA across the nuclear membrane for cytoplasmic synthesis after processing transcripts through post-transcriptional modifications.
Orotate decarboxylase converts substrates in eighteen milliseconds without an enzyme taking seventy-eight million years. Enzymes accelerate chemical reactions by as much as 10^17-fold compared to uncatalyzed rates.
X-ray crystallography solved the first protein structures on the 2nd of May 1958 using hemoglobin and myoglobin. John Kendrew worked with Max Perutz to determine these complex three-dimensional arrangements.