The study of how cells accomplish this is called bioenergetics.
Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can be only be transferred.
First Law of Thermodynamics: Cells cannot take energy out of thin air. It must harvest it from somewhere.
Second Law of Thermodynamics: It states that energy transfer leads to less organization. That means the universe tends toward disorder (entropy). In order to power cellular processes, energy input must exceed energy loss to maintain order. Cellular processes that release energy can be coupled with cellular processes that require an input of energy.
Plants that live in hot climates have evolved two different ways around this:
Aerobic respiration consists of four stages containing a series of coupled reactions that establish an electrochemical gradient across membranes:
There are four important tidbits to remember regarding glycolysis:
You will also want to make sure you remember the major steps of cell respiration, and the outcome of each steM