All this orderliness even in biology costs something. It costs something to maintain it. It costs life to modify it in a functional way. Basically it costs in energy, and shooting children is not balance in equilibrium. Tacitly assuming that all these processes happen just for free, but all life energy happens with a cost. If a living organism runs out of energy it dies. When an organism dies it loses it orderliness. It falls apart. It decomposes. So energy of equilibrium is critical for life. It provides the organizing of life.
If you look at life from a molecular level and consider that energy is stored, is processed, and our energy is produced by cells. First take a look at the biochemistry of cells. Look at the details of the role of energy when enabling biochemistry to work. Look at the molecule of ATP itself and gain a better understanding of how this molecule contains energy and how it can function as an energy currency in cellular processes. How do enzymes work? Enzymes have a role in biological processes and where does the ATP come from in the first place? Money just doesn’t grow on trees, and ATP just does not grow magically in cells. There is breakdown of organic molecules most notably sugar and these processes are called glycolysis, cellular respiration and oxidative phosphorylation that are costly. Where does the organic compound come from that are broken down when ATP’s are made? The process of photosynthesis emerges, capturing the energy from the sun, and emerges the Vitamin D, using the energy in sunlight to convert low energy inorganic compounds into high energy organic compounds.
There is biological organization not only in biological organisms but from other cells, that need energy for living ecosystems in general. Living systems need energy to build to maintain order. The fundamental materials such as carbon, water, nitrogen, phosphorous, plus the energy and homeostasis of the mitochondria are necessary to maintain orderliness. Energy and resources are limited and play a major role in living systems not being organized or healthy which determines living ecosystems at all levels of organization.
If we look at the biological hierarchy we are talking about the area of biology referred to as “ecology.” Ecology refers to how organisms adapt and react to our biosphere. With limitations in energy and resources this determines the abundance and distribution of different kinds of organisms and how patterns use the energy and resources in what we call the biosphere. Looking at the basics of molecules and basics of chemistry and chemical compounds we determine our ecological state. Living energy systems that create and maintain order can be understood as chemistry. Much of chemistry is a matter of creating polymers of bio – molecules. Bio-molecules are carbohydrates or sugars nucleic acids such as DNA, proteins, and lipids. All metabolic reactions produce or require energy to build complex molecules out of simpler ones. Living things overcome unbalance by adding energy. Added energy is used to drive essential metabolic reactions. Living systems of all sorts use energy to maintain balance and orderliness. This is a matter of chemistry such nucleic acids, proteins and lipid systems that break down all kinds of bio-molecules into smaller less complex parts.
The cell is essentially a miniature chemical plant that takes in raw material, builds polymers and breaks down other polymers for their raw materials and energies and called “Metabolism.” Some compounds are connected by biochemical pathways only to compounds that immediately precede or follow them in a particular sequence of reactions, but many compounds are connected to several others, even dozens of others, by branching and intersecting pathways. The metabolic pathways in a cell are not only complex but more importantly are all “potentially interconnected” and is likely to be the substrate of another and these products and substrates may themselves perform “critical functions.” Diffusion for example is a critical function of interconnecting pathways, but stay with me on our process of imagining these energy and homeostasis pathways.
Metabolic processing that breaks down complex compounds into simpler ones are called “catabolic pathways.” Catabolic pathways are called exergonic and they release energy. The most important catabolic pathway are those that breakdown sugars and make stored energy available into ATP’s in the mitochondria, where energy and homeostasis are necessary for orderliness. Taken together this set of pathways is called “cellular respiration.” The metabolic processes that assemble complex compounds from simpler ones are called “anabolic pathways,” and are endergonic. Living systems involve learning how energy is released by catabolic pathways that may be harnessed, stored, and transferred for use in “anabolic pathways that assemble complex compounds for energy.
Energy refers to the capacity to move matter against the opposing force of gravity. Energy can also refer to the ability to rearrange matter. In terms of chemistry energy refers to the ability to rearrange molecules by breaking down stable chemical bonds in molecules. Energy forms chemical, mechanical, and electromagnetic, but all energies can be considered one of two types, (1) kinetic energy or (2) Potential Energy.
Kinetic energy is energy associated with the movement or activity and performs work by altering the motion or properties of some piece or matter.
Potential Energy is stored energy and can be stored in an object resisting a force in chemical bonds or in a concentration gradient just to mention a few ways. The amounts of energy that are available on stable or unstable systems are how likely it is to react spontaneously. High energy systems are more generally found in orderly states, where as low energy systems are more disordered because energy is required to establish and maintain the orderly states of living things. The force of gravity on a ball provides an intuitive example of the relationship among energy stability and orderliness. A ball at the top of a ramp is in a higher energy state and it will spontaneously go to the bottom of the ramp because of gravity, and at the bottom of the ramp requires extra energy to get to the top of a ramp.
A large concentration difference across a membrane is a high energy state, and that concentration gradient across a membrane for example; if you have a sodium concentration outside the cell that is higher than the inside of the cell wall there is a cell barrier to equalize the gradient, and diffusion is needed to cross the cell wall.
When there is sodium concentration gradients across cell membranes, diffusion causes sodium ions to move from one area to another such as high concentrations typically outside to low concentration areas inside, and these are low energy areas. A concentration gradient contains stored energy that drives diffusion. Solute molecules from the side of a higher concentration of energy, move across the membrane to an area of lower concentration until both sides have an equal concentration called “equilibrium.” The sodium gated channels of a nerve cell are simultaneously stimulated by chemical signals which cause them to open and allow sodium ions into the cell. Glucose molecules are too big to diffuse through the plasma membrane easily, so they are moved across the membrane through gated channels. The higher the concentration gradient the faster rate of diffusion.
“The Natural Law of diffusion is that the molar flux due to diffusion is proportionate to the concentration gradient.” It drives to equilibrium that always has potentiality for balance.
Written by Carolyn d Hogarth Canada
Balance between outside environments and inside environments seek “equilibrium” for optimum health. This day of February 3rd 2025.
“the metamorphosis of life.”