I've been going through MIT's online Introduction to Biology course[0] that answers some of your questions here with regards to the shapes and what they signify - specifically the "Proteins and Protein Structure" lessons in the second unit, although some of the previous lectures are helpful setup as well - really interesting and engaging stuff, taught by Eric Lander (who ended up being one of the CRISPR pioneers featured in Isaacson's latest book)
>>joshua+(OP)
That's cool, I just happened to have picked up a used copy of the text on which the course based... "Molecular Biology of the Cell" -- the huge grey book. Geez, there's a lot of material in there!
Back in the day, I had steered away from chemistry in college because I didn't like to memorize stuff. Now I realize I missed out on some amazing knowledge.