So.. chapter 11 is exciting to me, not just because it begins to address my persistent questions about HOW molecular motors do what they do. I understand its focus to be free energy transduction: biology creating electricity “out of nothing”!
At first when I read the Benjamin Franklin quote at the start, I scoffed and thought that so many other things in science are better than plain old electricity at making “ a vain man [sic] humble”!! But then I decided that Nelson hadn’t put that quote there to remind us that electricity in and of itself is a marvel- rather, that the marvel is the super efficient generation of electricity by (/in/through?) biological systems. And this, I think, really is a great example of “natural” biophysical reality doing a much greater job than humans at something humans value.
I also like the way this chapter talked about structure, function AND property, but connected those three things in a different way to the standard “structure THEN property THEN function” narrative we tend to use when talking about investigating proteins. For example, Nelson talks about the function of “some busbar” connecting respiration pathways and ATP synthesis machinery before he identifies the busbar structure as a mitochondrial inner membrane. (Have I managed to make sense? If not, someone pull me up about this is class please.)
Last but not least!: I’d like to mention oxygen as another reason I liked ch 11. It’s possibly something human movement students learn early on, but I’d never thought much about anaerobic vs. aerobic energy production. I think it’s fair to say I now have a greater appreciation for the significance of O2 on earth (hooray for being able to couple the energetically “uphill” phosphorylation of ADP to the energetically favourable oxidation of the product of glucose glycolosis! [which I've learnt is called pyruvate]). Is there an analagous "environmental factor" that helps boost energy production in anaerobic organisms?
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Very nice post.
ReplyDeleteYou inspired a post on condensedconcepts.
I’d like to mention oxygen as another reason I liked ch 11.
ReplyDeleteI paused after this sentence, wondering if you were going to also thank water, food, etc.
I'm sure Ack could have equally ranked food should rank up there with oxygen - after thinking a lot about energy transduction, the origin of that energy should also be very important!
ReplyDeleteAfter reading Chapter 11 and discussing it, I think I have more of an appreciation for the Krebbs cycle. Before it was something I looked at, skipped over, and my brain switched off. But now I appreciate that using a proton gradient is a very efficient way of generating energy that can be used in the body.