Contribution

while i was gone....

(02/18/2003; 07:32pm) - while i was gone....

So I?ve been trying and trying to write for contribution but lately a lot of wasted words have been pouring forth -things about my relationship and my friends and my classes -basically, a lot of shit that you don?t really care about. So today, I picked up my laptop, god these things are cool, walked outside to a beautiful chair under this amazing clear blue sky (the kind that looks like summer) and I?m going to make something. We?ll hope it will be good. So here are all the things that I?m thinking about lately:

Part I
I just figured out after both college and high school how cells store and use energy. It?s amazing! I?ve been told over and over again that cells store energy in the phosphate bonds of ATP (adenosine triphosphate) but I really never understood why. Then thanks to my really fantastic microbiology teacher I was enlightened. Briefly for those of you who hate chemistry: molecules are essentially atoms held together by bonds, certain bonds have a higher degree of energy than others. In order to have a reaction happen all by itself with out any help from the outside world it has to be exergonic (to release energy) and have - ∆ G (or change in free energy), for a reaction that isn?t eager to occur the ∆G will be positive. (Both with have a more stable conformation after the reaction has occurred otherwise they would simple fall apart again.) So the great thing about ATP is that breaking one of its bonds releases -31.8 kj/v of energy (which is a lot for a small reaction). This available energy can then be coupled into other reactions driving them forward. So if something does not really want to react you can add this large amount of energy and force it, which are how all basic things in our cells which make up our bodies work. This holds true in all organisms (that includes plants, guys.) This is really amazing, so simple, so effective!


Part II
So beyond that I?ve been thinking about how all these complex structures fit together. See: Why flagella are so cool. By me. And it amazes me that we claim to be higher organisms with great potential for thought when all these little organisms are running on amazingly complex systems. Not only are they complicated but they have been conserved by evolution and passed down into multiple living things. So who?s more important or great or sophisticated? And are we supposed to learn about being big and busy or are we supposed to learn about being still and quiet. What if in all this hub-bub and chaos that we love to live, we are really given these minds to learn to be peaceful and quiet. To be still.