We All Need Some Cellular Respiration

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Every living thing needs cellular respiration to survive. Cellular respiration is the process that releases energy by breaking down glucose and other food molecules in the presence of oxygen. This process happens through three distinct operations which are glycolysis, the Krebs cycle, and the electron transport chain. Throughout these cycles, our bodies turn oxygen and glucose into carbon dioxide, water, and energy. Although this system seems simple enough, cellular respiration can not take place in just one step because all of the energy from glucose would be released at once, most of it being lost in the form of light and heat. All this plays a very important role in our lives and without it, organisms would cease to exist. The first step of cellular respiration, glycolysis, is the process in which one molecule of glucose is broken in half, producing two molecules of pyruvic acid, a 3-carbon compound. All this takes place in the cytoplasm and is anaerobic, meaning it does not require oxygen to occur. To get things going, the cell puts in 2 ATP molecules and at the end this is rep...

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