Friday, February 4, 2011
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Public Transport
I'm quite used to this now. It's a nice routine. Park my car, board the train, meld into the community of other commuters. We all squeeze into ourselves, taking up as little space as possible, trying not to touch but not put out when it happens. And it does happen -- crowded train, uneven tracks -- it's bound to happen. I start my music, pull out notes or textbook and study, one eye on the scrolling sign that tells me where I am. It takes longer than driving but it's free to me as a student so I save gas, mileage and parking fees. And I get time to study which is in very short supply. Yeah, definitely a nice routine and I'm grateful for it.
Sent via Pony Express
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
BTW ...
I have tons of stuff to write about but school and life are sucking all the time out of my life. I know that sounds odd but it's true. Gah. I will be back to writing more some time. Like in May or when I don't have school in 37 years.
Also, I had to remove all the pretty formatting from before because it was making things weird for my Granny and she couldn't see any of the blog posts. In about 37 years I should be able to add back some pretty stuff. Maybe.
Also, I had to remove all the pretty formatting from before because it was making things weird for my Granny and she couldn't see any of the blog posts. In about 37 years I should be able to add back some pretty stuff. Maybe.
Cellular Respiration
Cells need energy. To generate this energy they go through several complicated processes in the mitochondria of living cells. (In the mitochondria of eukaryotic animal cells, that is. Prokaryotic cells do not have mitochondria. And eukaryotic plant cells do something else but we haven't talked about that yet.)
The first is glycolysis which occurs in the cytoplasm of cells. Glycolysis literally means "splitting apart sugar." That sugar is composed of 6 carbon atoms, 12 hydrogen atoms and 6 oxygen atoms. The end products of glycolysis are 2 3-carbon molecules of pyruvic acid and 2 molecules of NADH (NAD+ that has been reduced). Glycolysis occurs by way of substrate level phosphorylation, which means that a phosphoryl group is added to adenosine diphosphate (ADP) to create adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Because glycolysis needs 2 ATP to begin and because 4 ATP are created, there is a net gain of 2 ATP.
From glycolysis, pyruvic acid is oxidized to create acetyl CoA. This means that electrons are taken from pyruvic acid and it loses a carboxyl group.
Then, acetyl CoA moves into the Krebs cycle which occurs in the matrix of the mitochondria. Here, the carbons in acetyl CoA are released as CO2. The energy from those released bonds is held as NAD+ and FAD. Throughout the Krebs cycle NAD+ and FAD are combined with hydrogen electrons to produce NADH and FAD+, respectively. The added electrons are then passed through the electron transport chain. A total of 2 ATP are produced by the Krebs cycle.
The electron transport chain is located in the cristae of the mitochondria. Here, the extra electrons of NADH and FAD+ are passed down a series of transporters. These transporters are arranged in order from higher affinity for electrons to lower affinity for electrons. As the electrons are passed from one transporter to another, protons are pumped across the cristae. This is called a chemiosmotic mechanism. It creates an energy potential that is collected by ATP synthase and converts ADP to ATP. The process is called oxidative phosphorylation. About 32 ATP are created here.
Glycolysis produces 2 ATP, the Krebs cycle produces 2 ATP and the electron transport chain produces 32 ATP for a total of 36 ATP in eukaryotic cells.
At least I hope so, because this is what I'm putting on my first microbiology test in 4 hours.
The first is glycolysis which occurs in the cytoplasm of cells. Glycolysis literally means "splitting apart sugar." That sugar is composed of 6 carbon atoms, 12 hydrogen atoms and 6 oxygen atoms. The end products of glycolysis are 2 3-carbon molecules of pyruvic acid and 2 molecules of NADH (NAD+ that has been reduced). Glycolysis occurs by way of substrate level phosphorylation, which means that a phosphoryl group is added to adenosine diphosphate (ADP) to create adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Because glycolysis needs 2 ATP to begin and because 4 ATP are created, there is a net gain of 2 ATP.
From glycolysis, pyruvic acid is oxidized to create acetyl CoA. This means that electrons are taken from pyruvic acid and it loses a carboxyl group.
Then, acetyl CoA moves into the Krebs cycle which occurs in the matrix of the mitochondria. Here, the carbons in acetyl CoA are released as CO2. The energy from those released bonds is held as NAD+ and FAD. Throughout the Krebs cycle NAD+ and FAD are combined with hydrogen electrons to produce NADH and FAD+, respectively. The added electrons are then passed through the electron transport chain. A total of 2 ATP are produced by the Krebs cycle.
The electron transport chain is located in the cristae of the mitochondria. Here, the extra electrons of NADH and FAD+ are passed down a series of transporters. These transporters are arranged in order from higher affinity for electrons to lower affinity for electrons. As the electrons are passed from one transporter to another, protons are pumped across the cristae. This is called a chemiosmotic mechanism. It creates an energy potential that is collected by ATP synthase and converts ADP to ATP. The process is called oxidative phosphorylation. About 32 ATP are created here.
Glycolysis produces 2 ATP, the Krebs cycle produces 2 ATP and the electron transport chain produces 32 ATP for a total of 36 ATP in eukaryotic cells.
At least I hope so, because this is what I'm putting on my first microbiology test in 4 hours.
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