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Comment by hazrmard | Hacker News Reader

I loved reading the article! How the body breaks down food into energy. Looking at life as energetic electrons finding a place to rest. I got goosebumps reading about mitochondrial membranes producing electric fields akin to lightning waiting to strike. The clockwork machinations of the human body as it breaks down complex organic matter into protons and electrons restless for a reunion, and then into a common currency of energy.

I have a disinterested high-schooler's understanding of biology. My field is electricity and physics and computers. So seeing this complex process explained thus was very, very engaging. Very well done!

Also, using metabolism to explain cancer was very enlightening.

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"mitochondrial membranes producing electric fields akin to lightning waiting to strike."

Just leaving this here for anyone who is interested; EMFs and their effects on the Mitochondria. This includes ELF-EMF from household wiring.

Manmade Electromagnetic Fields and Oxidative Stress—Biological Effects and Consequences for Health https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/22/7/3772

DNMT1 and miRNAs: possible epigenetics footprints in electromagnetic fields utilization in oncology https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12032-021-01574-y

Cellular stress response to extremely low-frequency electromagnetic fields (ELF-EMF): An explanation for controversial effects of ELF-EMF on apoptosis https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cpr.13154

Involvement of mitochondrial activity in mediating ELF-EMF stimulatory effect on human sperm motility https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/bem.20602

Role of Mitochondria in the Oxidative Stress Induced by Electromagnetic Fields: Focus on Reproductive Systems https://www.hindawi.com/journals/omcl/2018/5076271/

Extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields affect proliferation and mitochondrial activity of human cancer cell lines https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/09553002.2015.11...

"What causes the Black Shakes? THIS causes it, THIS causes it, THIS causes it. Information overload! Technological fucking civilization."

Prophetic.

The physicality of the proton pumps (I can never remember which ATPase it is) was new for me. My intro chemistry and biology classes in college really didn't get too far past "proton goes through tube and an ATP appears!"

It is called ATP Synthase.

My go to source is libretext. Glucose is transformed to pyruvate then Acetyl CoA. The Krebs or Citric Acid cycle creates electron carrier molecules. These donate electrons and power four proteins which slowly pump protons into the mitochondria space between its inner and outer membrane. This creates a proton gradient or imbalance as the protons want to diffuse back into the mitochondria. This flow or river of protons power the ATPsynthase which is like a wind turbine and creates ATP for the cell to use.

What is interesting is that plants create glucose in their leaves. But plant cells also consume glucose at night. Or in parts of the plant that cannot create its own energy.

Here is a video animation explaining the electron transport chain. https://youtu.be/LQmTKxI4Wn4

Thanks. Keeping this in a pinned tab till I have a chance to watch it all (I scrubbed through it just now). I love getting to see how things work visually like this.

Oh I went through the wringer with memorizing the Krebs cycle. It's just every time you got to ATP Synthase it was literally just a tube, a few arrows, some comicbook-esque POW shapes, and "ADP" and "ATP" on both ends of the POW. Lmao.

So "oh it's a water wheel that the proton pushes that then pushes the phosphate onto the ADP" is like, "Oh. There's...a whole physical machine and not just magic 'energy transfer'". I just thought it was really cool, though obvious in retrospect.

(I am not a clever man.)

I would recommend you read: PEMF - The Fifth Element of Health - https://www.amazon.com/PEMF-The-Fifth-Element-of-Health-audi...

It talks about how our cells are little capacitors and the earth's pulsed EMFs actually help energize your cells. I recommend skipping the first chapter though.

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