Title text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby
In the animation, Tim and Moby aresitting down, legs crossed, eyes closed, and hands placed on knees in a meditative pose. Tim is wearing a white tee shirt with a graphic that has red, black, and white spheres, and a lightning bolt projecting down from the spheres. Behind Tim and Moby, in the far background, are a four-story house, a hill, and a river. Closer in the background are a butterfly, the branches and flower petals of a tree, and two boulders, one with a small tree on it. The butterfly flies to the foreground and disappears off the screen.
Tim: Ohmmm …
Moby: Beep. Beep!
Tim: Do you mind? I’m trying to concentrate on my breathing here.
In the animation, a circle fills the screen with a letter to Tim and Moby. Tim reads the letter.
Tim: Dear Tim and Moby, Is cellular respiration the same thing as breathing? From, Chad.
Tim: I’m practicing deep breathing. But I don’t think deep cellular respiration is a thing.
The animation shows the silhouette of a human body with a diagram of lungs inside. The label “respiratory system” appears.
Tim: Breathing is part of the respiratory system, a group of organs that deliver oxygen from the air we breathe to cells throughout the body. Respiration is another word for that process.
The animation shows the lungs expanding and contracting as the silhouette is breathing.
Tim: Cellular respiration is what living cells do with that precious oxygen.
Moby: Beep!
Tim: Right, all humans need oxygen to survive. But did you ever stop to wonder why?
The animation shows Moby’s expression changing from looking interested and happy to looking somewhat embarrassed. His eyes shift to the left, the smile on his face turns to a slight frown, and his eyes shift straight ahead with a look of bewilderment.
Tim: Yeah, that’s what I thought. We use oxygen to process glucose, a kind of sugar. It provides all the energy cells need to function.
The animation shows on the left the silhouette of a person with their digestive system visible. The silhouette heats a banana, which travels through its digestive system. In an inset, glucose molecules are shown. On the screen appears the label “digestive system.”
Tim: All day long, your digestive system is busy breaking down food and turning it into glucose to power your cells.
The animation shows a cross section of a blood vessel against a black background, with the glucose sphere clusters flowing through the bloodstream. Other red spheres in pairs float with the glucose clusters.
Tim: Glucose, along with oxygen from our lungs, is delivered to our cells through the bloodstream.
The animation shows mitochondria inside a cell. Inside the mitochondria are oxygen and glucose. They come together and then transform into water, carbon dioxide, and glucose.
Tim: And into tiny cellular structures called mitochondria. When these substances come together, they chemically react with one another. This reaction is called cellular respiration. When it’s complete, we get three things: Water, carbon dioxide, and an energy-packed molecule called ATP.
The animation shows a graphic of the cross section of a blood vessel and an air sac. The air sac is the inner portion of a semicircular structure with a membrane-like structure around it. Inside the membrane like structure are blood cells carrying the linearly oriented set of spheres, two red spheres on either side of a black sphere. The labels “air sac” and “blood vessel” appear with lines that point to their respective structures. In the lower-left corner of the screen appears the label “carbon dioxide.” The graphic is animated to show blood cells flowing through the bloodstream. The carbon dioxide models that are made up of two red spheres and one black sphere are shown detaching from the blood cell in the blood vessel and into the air sac as the blood cell travels through the vessel.
Tim: The water joins up with blood and other fluids in the body. But carbon dioxide is a harmful waste gas that your body needs to get rid of. Too much carbon dioxide in the blood can be deadly. Your cells expel the carbon dioxide into your blood, which carries it to your lungs.
The animation shows the silhouette of a human body. The inside of the mouth and throat are visible, as well as the windpipe, the ribcage, and the lungs. When the person exhales, the carbon dioxide molecules leave the body and are magnified in an inset.
Tim: When you breathe out, you’re exhaling this carbon dioxide.
Moby: Beep?
Tim: Oh right, the ATP.
The animation shows an ATP molecule.
Tim: The whole point of cellular respiration is to generate these molecules. ATP stands for adenosine triphosphate, and it’s a kind of cellular fuel.
The animation shows models of DNA, RNA, and proteins.
Tim: The energy in ATP lets cells make more complex molecules like DNA, RNA, and proteins.
The animation shows a musculoskeletal view of an arm, from the upper arm to just above the wrist. The bicep and triceps are visible on the upper arm, and the arm is flexing at the elbow, approximating the wrist to the upper arm while the bicep muscle expands, demonstrating how the muscles contract and expand as the arm bends.
Tim: It powers the muscle contractions that let us move around. ATP fuels everything we do!
The animation shows a forest with grass, trees, a rabbit, ducks, a wolf, and other plants and animals.
Tim: And it’s not just us humans. Cellular respiration happens inside the cells of all living things: animals, plants, fungi, and even microbes. Because it uses oxygen, cellular respiration is also called aerobic respiration.
Moby: Beep?
Tim: Right, sometimes there’s no oxygen handy.
The animation shows the same musculoskeletal region on the left of the screen flexing at the elbow as the bicep muscles contract. On the right of the screen appear four pairs of red spheres against a deep-red background. The pairs of spheres disappear one by one. The label “fermentation” appears on the screen.
Tim: Like when you’re exercising really hard. Then your lungs can’t supply your muscle cells with all the oxygen they need. Fortunately, cells have a backup plan: fermentation. That’s when cells process glucose without oxygen. It’s not as efficient as aerobic respiration. But it’s reliable.
The animation shows a large circle with microscopic view of yeast. The label “yeast” appears on the screen.
Tim: This kind of respiration, which doesn’t use oxygen, is called anaerobic respiration. And it’s the only way that some organisms, like yeasts, release energy.
In the animation, Tim turns to Moby.
Tim: Hey, are you even listening?
Tim: Moby? Hey, Moby!
The animation shows Tim and Moby sitting side by side, once again in the meditative position, hands on knees. Moby is humming meditatively with a serene look on his face, and the lights on his chest are flashing. The scene shows a close-up of Moby, and behind him, yellow squiggly rays swirl around as he meditates peacefully. He opens his left eye and then closes it again.
make an observation based on how How do cells convert your breakfast into usable energy?
1 answer
Cells convert your breakfast into usable energy through the process of cellular respiration. Here's how it works:
Digestion: After you eat, your digestive system breaks down the food, such as carbohydrates (like bread, rice, or fruit) into glucose, a simple sugar that serves as a primary energy source for cells.
Transportation: The glucose enters the bloodstream and is transported to cells throughout the body. Along with glucose, oxygen—obtained from breathing—is also delivered to the cells.
Cellular Respiration: Inside the cells, glucose and oxygen enter the mitochondria, the cell's powerhouses. Here, a chemical reaction occurs in which glucose combines with oxygen in a process called cellular respiration. This reaction produces three main products: water, carbon dioxide, and adenosine triphosphate (ATP).
Energy Production: ATP is the energy-packed molecule that fuels cellular activities. It powers muscle contractions, synthesizes biomolecules like DNA and proteins, and supports all cellular functions necessary for life.
Waste Elimination: The carbon dioxide produced as a byproduct of cellular respiration is transported back to the lungs through the bloodstream, where it is expelled from the body when you exhale.
In summary, cells convert breakfast into usable energy by breaking down the food into glucose, combining it with oxygen, and producing ATP to power various physiological processes.
1 answer