The cell utilizes photosynthesis and cellular respiration to generate both biomass and bioenergy. Rather than random, the cell's energy-producing processes employ a deliberate strategy. Photosynthesis generates biomass, which is then employed by cellular respiration to produce bioenergy. The results of the energy producing process are specifically designed to serve the whole cell in the future. As such, the strategy is holistic and occurs over time.
Cells also employ entropy strategically. Both of our energy-producing processes regularly employ stored bioenergy to push chemical reactions uphill (against entropy). After this energy expenditure, the cell sits back and lets entropy take over. In the urge to balance the system (driven by entropy), chemical reactions rush downhill. The cell employs this energy to charge biomlecules with discretionary bioenergy. Having reached the top of the grade, the bicyclist speeds downhill without using anymore energy.
Cells employ entropy in a similar fashion to strategically move molecules around its metabolic pathways. Active transport relies upon internal bioenergy, while passive transport relies upon diffusion (entropy). The sole purpose of these strategic uses of entropy is to serve the whole cell over time. Enabling both a holistic and temporal sense, Life's Information Digestion System provides explanatory power for these cellular mysteries. As Matter has neither of these capabilities, a material explanation is impossible.
Photosynthesis & Cellular Respiration: Life’s Energy Production Processes
Plausible Rationale for Notebook
Cells utilize entropy to generate Bio-Energy & Bio-Mass.
Cells move Matter via Passive Transport = Diffusion = Entropy
6H2O + 6CO2 + Solar Energy = C6H12O6 + 6O2
C6H12O6 + 6O2 = 6H2O + 6CO2 + Biological Energy
The above equations are a mathematical summary of the two most important processes for Life on Earth. Notice that both equations have the same components, but in reverse order. The first equation summarizes photosynthesis, while the second summarizes cellular respiration.
Let us verbalize the equations – words rather than symbols. The photosynthetic process employs Solar Energy to transform 6 Water molecules and 6 Carbon Dioxide molecules into 1 Glucose molecule and 6 Oxygen molecules. Put another way, quantized photon energy from the Sun is employed to convert 12 relatively simple, low energy molecules (Water and Carbon Dioxide) into 1 complex high-energy mega-biomolecule (Glucose) with 6 low-energy molecules (Oxygen) released as a waste product.
Cellular Respiration (the 2nd equation) reverses the process. Glucose is combined with Oxygen to yield Water, Carbon Dioxide and Bio-Energy. A lot of solar energy was stored in the glucose molecule in photosynthesis. Much of this stored energy is converted into energy that can be used by the cell to fuel its many metabolic pathways. Without this energy to organize its matter, the cell quickly dissolves into the random chaos of inanimate molecules and ceases to live.
Put yet another way: Photosynthesis uses solar energy to convert inanimate matter into living (organic) matter. Cellular respiration converts this living matter into living energy, i.e. energy that can be used by the cell.
These are mutually dependent processes. Without Photosynthesis, Cellular Respiration has no fuel to convert into BioEnergy. Without Cellular Respiration, the product of Photosynthesis can’t be converted into useful BioEnergy. Without this energy, Life comes to a dead halt - literally.
As seen, these co-dependent processes use biomass to create bioenergy and vice versa. In a comical sense, cells have precedent over Einstein. They have been employing his famous insight E = MC2 (energy and mass are two sides of the same coin) for billions of years.
The mathematical realization of these mutually dependent processes that are responsible for all the biomass and bioenergy on our planet are relatively simple. In fact, these algebraic expressions are the essence of elegant simplicity that scientists treasure and dream of. However, the processes that enable solar energy to be channeled into the production of biomass and bio energy are quite complicated, fascinating and even, as we shall see, miraculous.
The remainder of this Notebook will explore these complex processes in more detail. In so doing, we will see how cells make specific use of the fundamental energy packets of the Material Realms – photons, electrons and protons – to perform its magic. All cells employ these quantized energy packets to synthesize complex, energy rich Bio-Molecules from the relatively simple, low energy molecules that were formed shortly after the Big Bang.
Why does this matter? What motivates me to write this Notebook?
Let’s throw some plausible reasons (constructed after the fact) at this peculiar obsession. As evidence for the intensity of his Divine possession, my Person (an experienced bicyclist) crashed into a parked car on a lazy Saturday morning on a broad and empty street due his sheer amazement at the processes that Life employs to create living mass and energy. Months later now, he still feels the same way. Don is just as amazed about these cellular factories as he was just before the accident. (Over 2 years later, he is just as dumbstruck is not more.)
1) The first reason follows from this internal excitement. I must express my Awe and Wonder at Nature’s Majesty. Similarly, dogs bark at the moon and Egypt’s sacred baboons beat their chests at the sunrise.
2) The second reason, and major motivating factor (as the following section indicates), came to my Person after surgery was performed to repair the hip that was broken in his biking accident. Under the influence of surgical narcotics and opioids to ease the pain thereby increasing mobility, Don’s subconscious first realized that all cells proactively employ entropy (a natural disorganizing influence) as an essential tool to produce biomass and bioenergy.
His liminal Mind then put some puzzle pieces together. If cells have the innate ability to employ entropy as a tool in a constructive fashion, might they also have the innate ability to employ the mathematical sophistication of Data Stream Dynamics (DSD) as a tool to organize environmental information in a constructive fashion. Yin-yang type processes: Entropy as a disorganizing and DSD as an organizing influence.
3) The third and final reason was constructed just recently and with a sober mind. Maybe the most artificial. The many miraculous subroutines of the Cell’s essential processes for creating biological mass and energy suggest the possibility and even plausibility that there might be other undiscovered, almost unbelievable, concepts associated with the cell’s digestion of information. Can you open your mind to the notion that Life has an information digestion (ID) system that operates in the Realm of Attention with its second experiential dimension of time. Maybe even harder to believe is the notion that this Attention Realm that is exclusive to Life is on a par with the familiar and well-studied Subatomic and Molecular Realms (the Material Realms).
Sounds a little far-fetched – too far outside of conventional wisdom? Suspend judgement until you hear the facts. Don’t let your mental frame get in the way of the unexpected. If you can believe that cells have electron transport chains, it shouldn’t be too hard to wrap your mind around the possibility that there is a second experiential dimension of time that is exclusive to living systems and this second temporal dimension is where Life’s ID system operates.
Entropy is the natural probabilistic tendency of all material systems to move towards energy equilibrium. Our temperature-controlled homes provide a great example of entropy in action. When the door of a heated house is left open during a frigid winter, the cold air rushes inside and cools the cozy home; simultaneously the warm air rushes through the door to be dissipated in the great outside.
If the door is left open long enough, the temperature inside the house becomes the same as the outside. Equilibrium is reached. Unless heat is added and the doors are closed, this state of equilibrium will remain the same forever. The molecules will never reorganize themselves into warmer indoor molecules and cooler outdoor molecules.
Entropy can also be thought of as the natural probabilistic tendency of any material system to become less organized over time. Furthermore, this process is not reversible unless energy is added to the system. This entropic thinking applies to many types of systems, not just heating.
Think of a library bookshelf falling over. The books become less organized, more disordered. The books will never reorganize themselves. In order for that to happen, someone must put energy into the system – pick up the books and put them on the shelves – reverse entropy.
We regularly experience the effects of entropy. Houses become dirty and must be cleaned to reverse this natural tendency towards disorder. Cars inevitably break down unless they are maintained. Our physical and intellectual capabilities decline unless they are exercised. In each of these cases, entropy exerts a negative effect upon the system.
Further, entropy seems so inexorable that one might instinctively think of it as a force – like gravity. Just as the force of the earth’s gravity is always leveling mountains and pulling us down to the ground, entropy is continually pulling systems towards a less ordered equilibrium – dirty house, broken down car, out of shape body and dull mind.
Yet entropy is not a force. According to physicists, the four fundamental forces that rule the universe are: gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces. That’s it. No entropy.
If entropy is not a force, what is it? Entropy is a natural mathematical process associated with probability. The assumption is that particles, large or small, e.g. gas molecules, move about randomly, unless acted upon by an outside force such as gravity. Random behavior over time has many mathematical laws associated with it, including entropy. Linked with entropy is ergodicity, the tendency of certain systems to move inexorably over time to a common point. According to the law of averages, luck always runs out.
Despite the fact that entropy seems like our enemy – dirtying our house, warming our beer, cooling our food, every living cell continually takes advantage of entropic processes in order to survive. For instance, cells employ entropy to generate the biological energy that powers their existence. This process is significant, in fact crucial, as cells die without this energy.
Cells generate useful, organizing energy via two processes: glycolysis and cellular respiration. Every cell, even the primordial bacteria, the first creatures to inhabit the Earth, employ glycolysis to create useable biological energy. Because they have greater energy requirements, nucleated cells (eukaryotes) also employ cellular respiration to generate the energy that organizes their matter. Eukaryotes are the building blocks of all multi-cellular organisms such as human beings.
These two energy-creating processes (glycolysis and cellular respiration) take advantage of entropy to charge ATP molecules. ATP could be likened to the storage battery of the cell. The cell uses this molecule’s energy to organize its billions upon billions of molecules into a working cohesive unit. The sole purpose of this revolving team of atoms is to enable Life to fulfill her purpose – survive and reproduce.
As an organizing energy, the ATP molecule reverses entropy – the natural tendency of Matter to move towards a less ordered, less energetic system. No magic here. Life captures and stores the virtually inexhaustible solar energy to charge these ATP molecules. The biological process that cells employ to transform solar photons into biological energy is called photosynthesis.
All cells, including bacteria, use glycolysis to charge ATP molecules and all nucleated cells use cellular respiration for the same task. However, only plants use photosynthesis. Plants utilize the sun’s photons to generate the organic material that fuels both glycolysis and cellular respiration. Without this organic fuel, the cell’s biological factory comes to a dead halt – literally. No resurrection.
In addition to Life’s sustenance, photosynthesis also provides Life’s substance – the stuff that living systems consist of. Like energy-creating cellular respiration, photosynthesis also relies upon entropy to generate BioMass.
To better understand, let us examine how these biological energy and mass generators utilize entropy to perform their tasks.
In order to survive, cells must move substance (molecules, electrons, etc) around the interior, from outside to inside, and from inside to outside. They have two types of transport systems: Active and Passive.
Active transport generally requires the stored energy of ATP to move molecules from place to place. Passive transport relies upon the thermal energy of matter. Put another way, passive transport regularly employs entropy via diffusion to do its work. Furthermore, active transport regularly sets up the conditions for passive transport by moving particles against flow of diffusion - the natural flow of entropy.
The cell’s energy production process provides an excellent example of the interaction of both types of transport systems. Both photosynthesis and cellular respiration utilize the energy stored in an electron to push protons across a boundary, a membrane (active transport). This establishes an electromagnetic gradient (a charge differential) between the location of the protons (+) and the other side (–). When the difference between the two sides becomes great enough (passes a threshold), the gates open and the protons rush naturally due to entropy through the turnstile to equalize the charge (passive transport). The energy derived from this passive transport charges ATP molecules (potential bioenergy). Every nucleated cell in our body goes through this process multiple times every minute of every day to generate the useable energy that we employ to survive.
To even the least perceptive, it is evident that the employment of this balancing of active and passive transport is a strategy. It does not occur randomly, but rather regularly, deliberately, with the purpose of energy generation. Further the strategy occurs over time (not instantly) and is designed to serve the needs of the entire cell. Neither the strategy, nor the processes have any meaning outside of the cell. As such, the entire set of processes and strategies belong to a holistic system.
As we shall see in subsequent chapters, Matter’s atomistic content is not equipped to deal with or explain Life’s holistic behavior. The only way forward is through Life’s Information Digestion System.