Thermodynamics
The principle stating that energy can be transferred or transformed, but cannot be created or destroyed.
What is the First Law of Thermodynamics?
The portion of a biological system's energy that can perform work when temperature and pressure are uniform throughout.
What is free energy
The primary energy shuttle in cells, composed of an adenine base, a ribose sugar, and three phosphate groups.
What is Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP)?
A quantitative measure of the degree of disorder or randomness in a biological system.
What is entropy?
A chemical reaction that proceeds with a net release of free energy and a negative Delta(G)
What is an exergonic reaction?
The strategy of using the energy released from an exergonic process to directly power an endergonic process.
What is energy coupling?
This law of thermodynamics dictates that every energy transfer or transformation increases the total entropy of the universe.
What is the Second Law of Thermodynamics?
A nonspontaneous chemical reaction that absorbs free energy from its surroundings (Delta G > 0).
What is an endergonic reaction?
Pumping substances across biological membranes against their concentration gradients represents this class of cellular work.
What is transport work?
Because living cells can exchange both energy and matter with their surroundings, they are classified as this type of system.
What is an open system?
A system at maximum stability where free energy reaches its lowest point and can no longer perform work.
What is chemical equilibrium?
This structural reason explains why the triphosphate tail of ATP is unstable and behaves like a "compressed spring".
What is the mutual repulsion of concentrated negative charges on adjacent phosphate groups?
Organisms maintain internal order without violating the Second Law of Thermodynamics by releasing these two things into their surroundings.
What are heat and metabolic waste?
Protein synthesis is an example of an endergonic anabolic reaction, whereas this major pathway serves as a primary exergonic catabolic example.
What is cellular respiration?
The process of transferring a phosphate group from ATP to a recipient molecule, making that intermediate more reactive.
What is phosphorylation?