Energy Conversions

All cells need energy to perform chemical reaction and stay alive. This
energy comes from the food that is absorbed by the cell. Carbohydrates and
lipids are the main sources of energy used by cells.
The energy from carbohydrates and lipids is not used directly. First, it
must be converted into a more useable form. The energy molecule that is
utilized by all cells is known as ATP. Energy is taken out of the food and
converted into the more useable ATP molecules. But why cant cells just use
energy directly from food? Why even bother converting it into ATP? Glucose
contains a large amount of energy. In fact, it contains too much energy to be
released all at once. If all of the energy in glucose was released at once,
most of it would be wasted and simply released as heat. The cell needs to
place the energy into ATP so that it can be released a little bit at a time. The
energy from 1 glucose molecule is used to create up to 36 ATP molecules.
The ATP molecules can deliver smaller amounts of energy without wasting
much of it at all.

In order to get energy out food, cells perform a process known as

cellular respiration. In a chemical reaction, the substances on the left side
are called the reactants. These are the raw materials needed for a reaction
to take place. The substances on the right side are called the products.
These are the substances that are formed as a result of the reaction. When
heat or energy appears in a chemical equation on the products side (right),
it means it is being released! Cellular respiration releases energy from food
so that it can be used by cells! Most of the process of cellular respiration
takes place inside of the mitochondria. This is why we say that the
mitochondria is like a power plant. It is where energy from raw materials is
converted into useable ATP!

During exercise your muscle cells cannot absorb oxygen fast enough to
make the ATP they need. When this happens, a second process known as
fermentation occurs. This less efficient process allows your body to make
ATP, but it produces lactic acid which makes you sore. Fermentation by yeast
and bacteria is used in the food industry. When yeast is used for the
fermentation process, it produces alcohol instead of lactic acid as a side
product. Carbon dioxide is still produced, which is why yeast makes bread
rise.
All eukaryotic cells have mitochondria to convert energy from food into
useable ATP. However, plants and other autotrophic organisms make their
own food through a process known as photosynthesis. The raw materials
(reactants) needed by plants to perform photosynthesis are water and
carbon dioxide. The products of photosynthesis are glucose (a sugar) and
oxygen gas. Glucose is the food molecule created by photosynthesis. When
heat or energy appears in a chemical equation on the reactants side (left), it
means it is being absorbed! Photosynthesis absorbs energy so that plants
can make their food! The energy that is absorbed by plants during
photosynthesis comes from the sun! (Photo- means light!)

The energy in the sugars made by glucose is stored in the chemical

bonds, so we call it chemical energy. Because of this, we say that plants and
other photosynthetic organisms convert solar energy into chemical energy.
Chloroplasts are the organelle in plant cells which are responsible for
absorbing light and performing photosynthesis. Chloroplasts are full of
chlorophyll molecules. This molecule absorbs energy that will be used to
make the glucose.
Based on your vocabulary reference sheet, why is the prefix chloroused to name this important organelle and the molecule inside of it? Because
chloroplasts and chlorophyll make the cell green! (Chloro- means GREEN.)

Seeds and very young plants need oxygen to grow and not carbon
dioxide. Why is this? Seeds need oxygen to perform cellular respiration to
use the food energy stored in the seeds by their parents. They cant perform
photosynthesis until they are large enough to have their own leaves!
Deep in the ocean, there is no light for photosynthesis to occur. But in
the 1970s, scientists found entire food webs living near underwater
hydrothermal vents which spew minerals and provide heat. Scientists found
bacteria that were performing chemosynthesis by obtaining energy from
inorganic compounds like hydrogen sulfide (H2S) instead of light. These
bacteria use this energy and CO2 to produce the organic compounds needed
in the ecosystem. These chemosynthetic bacteria are the producers in these
deep underwater ecosystems, and they often live symbiotically inside larger
animals like tube worms.