The Krebs Cycle has flunked more incipient marine biologists out of the Biology curriculum than pregnancy or recreational drugs and is deservedly feared as the Great Bugaboo of Biology. It's also the foundation of life and researchers have discovered prebiotic molecules enacting various steps in the Krebs Cycle. For the sci fi twist, some of those molecules came from space. (Science Daily: Enzyme-free Krebs cycle may have been key step in origin of life on Earth)
When psychologists bother you and show contempt for your lack of knowledge, ask them to explain phosphorylation and they will go away. Maybe you recall from your Biology class in high school the Krebs cycle is a complex housing for a fundamental process in adding a Phosphorus atom to the ADP molecule to create the ATP molecule. (Biology: Biological Energy - ADP & ATP)
Phosphorylation is what generates the energy which fuels every living thing and hence the scientific interest in discovering how it came to exist. When the process is too complex for many students to grasp it, how can it possibly happen that such a system came about spontaneously with inanimate materials.
How indeed.
There's nothing intuitive to be gleaned from the 'primordial soup,' the prebiotic muck which occupied this planet. The idea it could actually be 'making' things makes no apparent sense since it seems like such a pool should do nothing but lie there inert and stink. Beware of the 'making' aspect since that's anthropomorphizing the situation in terms of the way we think; yep, I will make something so I will do this and that to make it happen. There's no intelligent purpose in that stinkpool so the biologists ask perennially how can it possibly happen that something important comes out of it.
The Rockhouse philosophy on the matter is unchanged and none of this will affect your religion unless you want that. According to the Rockhouse view, some form of a God started all of this happening with the Big Bang. If there was any grand plan, it was in the way he did it. The scientists aren't trying to second-guess anyone; they just want to find how the plan works.
If anything at all comes from the study of science, likely the first will be how little one knows but that doesn't change since science makes you aware of even more things you don't know and yet more with every turn.
My purpose isn't to intimidate anyone with this and I'm cognizant of the fear which is valid when the Krebs Cycle is long and complex. It's not likely I have any greater love for Chemistry than thou but the importance of it mandated it to me.
Watson: are you ever going to get on with it?
Tallyho!
A set of biochemical processes crucial to cellular life on Earth could have originated in chemical reactions taking place on the early Earth four billion years ago, believes a group of scientists from the Francis Crick Institute and the University of Cambridge. The researchers have demonstrated in the lab an enzyme-free metabolic pathway that mirrors the important Krebs cycle present in living organisms today. It is sparked by particles called sulphate radicals under conditions similar to those on the harsh, volcanic Earth of four billion years ago. There has been much interest in how the first life forms developed in these conditions and how the biochemical processes necessary to sustain life could form from nothing.
Credit: Aleksej Zelezniak/Francis Crick Institute
Since we're this deep already, here's a really pretty view of the Citric Acid Cycle (i.e. another term for Krebs).
WIKI: Citric acid cycle
Note: any who would be scared off by this content are already gone and now the view is of the beauty of it which hopefully you share. I also hope I have worded this well enough that I didn't chase anyone off but we probably have lost some.
The researchers have demonstrated a network of chemical reactions in the lab which mimic the important Krebs cycle present in living organisms today. In a study published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, they say it could explain an important step in how life developed on Earth.
Life developed four billion years ago on a harsh, volcanic Earth that lacked any oxygen, but that did possess large oceans rich in metal ions. There has been much interest in how the first life forms developed in these conditions and how the biochemical processes necessary to sustain life could form from nothing.
- Science Daily: Enzyme-free Krebs cycle may have been key step in origin of life on Earth
The researchers are wise and they do not talk of life arising from nothing but rather how did this process happen from nothing. This isn't the same as creating life but there would be no life without it.
One central metabolic pathway learned by every A-level biology student is the Krebs cycle. But how did this essential set of chemical reactions, each step catalyzed by an enzyme, first arise? Each step in the cycle is not enough by itself. Life needs a sequence of these reactions, and it would have needed it before biological enzymes were around: Amino acids, the molecular components of enzymes, are made from products of the Krebs cycle.
The research group from the Francis Crick Institute and the University of Cambridge say their demonstration offers an answer. They have shown an enzyme-free metabolic pathway that mirrors the Krebs cycle. It is sparked by particles called sulphate radicals under conditions similar to those on Earth four billion years ago.
- SD
While this won't get front page attention, it's breathtaking in this field of study. Sorry about maybe hitting this too much but I do want to emphasize this is not Creation; this is what happened because of Creation. There's no threat to religion unless you want one.
This is breakthrough research and who knows if it qualifies at the Nobel level but it's highly damn good in any case.
"People have tried to work on a non-enzymatic Krebs cycle for years, but most have thought about it theoretically or philosophically. Few have done systematic physical experiments like those we report here. A non-enzymatic catalyst for the Krebs cycle exists and we have found it," concludes Dr Ralser.
- SD
The interested student is invited to review the article for the detail of the research since he or she may find it fascinating.
Watson: are you going full-out Biology instructor now?
Negatory on that, Buffalo Breath, as I'm the full-out Biology introducer and my part is to tease and intrigue such that the interested student goes off somewhere to learn more.
The interested student who wants this for robos to power them is probably a tad disappointed because it won't work for powering robos; it's too damn hard.
Watson: irony?
There's hope for you yet, Old Bison.
When psychologists bother you and show contempt for your lack of knowledge, ask them to explain phosphorylation and they will go away. Maybe you recall from your Biology class in high school the Krebs cycle is a complex housing for a fundamental process in adding a Phosphorus atom to the ADP molecule to create the ATP molecule. (Biology: Biological Energy - ADP & ATP)
Phosphorylation is what generates the energy which fuels every living thing and hence the scientific interest in discovering how it came to exist. When the process is too complex for many students to grasp it, how can it possibly happen that such a system came about spontaneously with inanimate materials.
How indeed.
There's nothing intuitive to be gleaned from the 'primordial soup,' the prebiotic muck which occupied this planet. The idea it could actually be 'making' things makes no apparent sense since it seems like such a pool should do nothing but lie there inert and stink. Beware of the 'making' aspect since that's anthropomorphizing the situation in terms of the way we think; yep, I will make something so I will do this and that to make it happen. There's no intelligent purpose in that stinkpool so the biologists ask perennially how can it possibly happen that something important comes out of it.
The Rockhouse philosophy on the matter is unchanged and none of this will affect your religion unless you want that. According to the Rockhouse view, some form of a God started all of this happening with the Big Bang. If there was any grand plan, it was in the way he did it. The scientists aren't trying to second-guess anyone; they just want to find how the plan works.
If anything at all comes from the study of science, likely the first will be how little one knows but that doesn't change since science makes you aware of even more things you don't know and yet more with every turn.
My purpose isn't to intimidate anyone with this and I'm cognizant of the fear which is valid when the Krebs Cycle is long and complex. It's not likely I have any greater love for Chemistry than thou but the importance of it mandated it to me.
Watson: are you ever going to get on with it?
Tallyho!
A set of biochemical processes crucial to cellular life on Earth could have originated in chemical reactions taking place on the early Earth four billion years ago, believes a group of scientists from the Francis Crick Institute and the University of Cambridge. The researchers have demonstrated in the lab an enzyme-free metabolic pathway that mirrors the important Krebs cycle present in living organisms today. It is sparked by particles called sulphate radicals under conditions similar to those on the harsh, volcanic Earth of four billion years ago. There has been much interest in how the first life forms developed in these conditions and how the biochemical processes necessary to sustain life could form from nothing.
Credit: Aleksej Zelezniak/Francis Crick Institute
Since we're this deep already, here's a really pretty view of the Citric Acid Cycle (i.e. another term for Krebs).
WIKI: Citric acid cycle
Note: any who would be scared off by this content are already gone and now the view is of the beauty of it which hopefully you share. I also hope I have worded this well enough that I didn't chase anyone off but we probably have lost some.
The researchers have demonstrated a network of chemical reactions in the lab which mimic the important Krebs cycle present in living organisms today. In a study published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, they say it could explain an important step in how life developed on Earth.
Life developed four billion years ago on a harsh, volcanic Earth that lacked any oxygen, but that did possess large oceans rich in metal ions. There has been much interest in how the first life forms developed in these conditions and how the biochemical processes necessary to sustain life could form from nothing.
- Science Daily: Enzyme-free Krebs cycle may have been key step in origin of life on Earth
The researchers are wise and they do not talk of life arising from nothing but rather how did this process happen from nothing. This isn't the same as creating life but there would be no life without it.
One central metabolic pathway learned by every A-level biology student is the Krebs cycle. But how did this essential set of chemical reactions, each step catalyzed by an enzyme, first arise? Each step in the cycle is not enough by itself. Life needs a sequence of these reactions, and it would have needed it before biological enzymes were around: Amino acids, the molecular components of enzymes, are made from products of the Krebs cycle.
The research group from the Francis Crick Institute and the University of Cambridge say their demonstration offers an answer. They have shown an enzyme-free metabolic pathway that mirrors the Krebs cycle. It is sparked by particles called sulphate radicals under conditions similar to those on Earth four billion years ago.
- SD
While this won't get front page attention, it's breathtaking in this field of study. Sorry about maybe hitting this too much but I do want to emphasize this is not Creation; this is what happened because of Creation. There's no threat to religion unless you want one.
This is breakthrough research and who knows if it qualifies at the Nobel level but it's highly damn good in any case.
"People have tried to work on a non-enzymatic Krebs cycle for years, but most have thought about it theoretically or philosophically. Few have done systematic physical experiments like those we report here. A non-enzymatic catalyst for the Krebs cycle exists and we have found it," concludes Dr Ralser.
- SD
The interested student is invited to review the article for the detail of the research since he or she may find it fascinating.
Watson: are you going full-out Biology instructor now?
Negatory on that, Buffalo Breath, as I'm the full-out Biology introducer and my part is to tease and intrigue such that the interested student goes off somewhere to learn more.
The interested student who wants this for robos to power them is probably a tad disappointed because it won't work for powering robos; it's too damn hard.
Watson: irony?
There's hope for you yet, Old Bison.
No comments:
Post a Comment