| you think an organism is aware when it's going to run out of its carbon and energy source? i used to grow yeast in the lab and they just use the stuff up , at the maximum rate, until they damn near exhaust it, and then they shut down. seems kind of dumb. but it set me to thinking, and i'm still thinking about it, about energy in living cells. i never see any discussion in biology about the redox state of cells, microorganisms or fullsize ones like us. one time i measured it, by measuring the absolute fluorescence of NADH in a culture of growing yeast cells, and you wouldn't believe how reduced the cells are in a growing culture of yeast. other thing i couldn't believe was how profligate they are. when they are growing, with lots of carbon and energy source, they have only two thirds as efficient energy capture system (oxidative phosphorylation efficiency, or yield) as they could have. the idea is to throw a bunch of energy away, just waste it, so you can synthesize more of yourselves. 'course then they run out; but it's like, they didn't know they would run out, or didn't think they would ever run out of energy, so they don't give a shit. Full steam ahead, like.  |