ABSTRACT
The law of “conservation of energy” tells us that energy can be converted from one form to another, but never be created nor destroyed. It may have the form of kinetic energy of a moving object, or potential energy in a field of gravity, electric potential, or magnetism. The degraded food molecules release their store of chemical energy through a sequence of electron transfers. Electrons travel through a series of enzymes residing in the mitochondria. This is a transport chain, where electrons successively drop down to lower energy levels, one at a time, like falling down flights of stairs. The electrons that are transferred through the enzyme complexes in the mitochondria finally end up with a molecule of oxygen gas. The human body produces millions of adenosine triphosphate molecules every second through the respiration process, and these fuel units are constantly used and recycled.
