1. It bothers me when people say I'm "converting oxygen to carbon dioxide." Oxygen is absorbed through the linings in the alveoli in the lungs into the capillary beds where it is distributed through pulmonary circulation. Once distributed, it serves as the final electron acceptor in the electron transport chain. The electron transport chain is a series of redox reactions that generates the proton gradient in the Krebs cycle that provides energy for the pump that drives the creation of ATP, cellular energy.
Carbon dioxide, on the other hand, is, I think, a byproduct of the citric acid cycle, which is a separate event from the electron transport chain and the Krebs cycle. The citric acid cycle generates the electron carrier molecules needed for further redox reactions by transforming carbon-based molecules.
This carbon dioxide waste is carried in the blood back to the lungs where it is absorbed back through the alveoli down a concentration gradient and respired back into the atmosphere.
You are not "converting oxygen to carbon dioxide."
2. I think it's really interesting that we have a stronger memory for visual things than for other senses. I think it's true that olfactory stimuli provide the strongest memory inducer, but try this exercise: conjure the image of your bedroom, or office, or whatever room you're not at at the moment. It's pretty clear, right? Now conjure the taste of chocolate cake. I mean, I want you to really taste it the way you really see your room. It doesn't work as well, does it? I wonder why that is? Maybe the visual component of our engrams is stronger than the other components? I don't know enough to know that. Hopefully some day I'll find out.
That's all for now folks.
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4 comments:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellular_respiration#Aerobic_respiration
"C6H12O6 + 6 O2 → 6 CO2 + 6 H2O"
i realize i'm not as smart as you, but it seems pretty straightforward to me.
And the evolution of the eye was not that big a leap in the evolutionary process, either. But you're right, it provides the best mode for one's memories...
ariel- the CO2 isn't coming from the O2 though. there are a lot of things that are left out of that equation because they balance from either side eventually and that's just a net reaction. the carbon dioxide is cleaved off of the isocitrate. the oxygen isn't the same oxygen that's going into the equation. that oxygen is used later in the ETC. the oxygen in the CO2 cleaved off is from the carbon compounds in the CAC.
and down in a desert draw-
i'll confess i don't know much about the evolution of the eye or it's necessity to evolution, but it at least seems interesting, as you say, in its connection to memory formation and sense of self. or maybe just the ability to connect visual input to higher cognition, something most animals seem less able to do.
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