Cellular Energy

Autotrophs and Heterotrophs Living organisms require a continuous input of energy to maintain cellular and organismal functions such as growth, repair, movement, defense, and reproduction. Cells can only use chemical energy to fuel their functions, therefore they need to harvest energy from chemical bonds of biomolecules, such as sugars and lipids. Autotrophic organisms, namely plants, algae, and photosynthetic and chemosynthetic bacteria, convert inorganic materials into such biomolecules by...

The Food Chain Energy is one of the most important abiotic factors in an ecosystem and organisms in an ecosystem are connected by the flow of energy and matter among one another. Since energy can be neither created nor destroyed, it can only change form or be transferred to the next organism in a food chain. For example, every time a cow grazes on grass or an osprey hunts and consumes fish, energy is transferred from the consumed organism to the consumer. Each of these interactions in a food...

This protocol describes calorespirometry, the direct and simultaneous measurement of both heat dissipation and respiration, which provides a noninvasive approach to assess energy metabolism. This technique is used to assess the contribution of both aerobic and anaerobic pathways to energy utilization by monitoring the total cellular energy flow.

The universe is composed of matter in different forms, and all forms of matter contain energy. The different forms of energy on Earth originate from the Sun — the ultimate energy source. Plants capture light energy from the Sun, and, via the process of photosynthesis, convert it into chemical energy. This stored energy from plants can be harnessed in many ways. For example, eating plant products as food provides energy for our body to function, and burning wood or coal (fossilized plants)...

Source: Ketron Mitchell-Wynne, PhD, Asantha Cooray, PhD, Department of Physics & Astronomy, School of Physical Sciences, University of California, Irvine, CA This experiment demonstrates the work-energy principle. Energy is one of the most important concepts in science and is not simple to define. This experiment will deal with two different kinds of energy: gravitational potential energy and translational kinetic energy. Gravitational potential energy is defined as the energy an object...