‘The burning issue: molecules and energy’ describes how energy can be transferred through molecular reactions. Metabolic processes are the foundation of cellular life. All chemical reactions increase entropy (or disorder), but living cells maintain their order by carefully controlling metabolic reactions. In living organisms glucose is broken down into pyruvate through glycolysis. Pyruvate then enters the citric acid cycle, which is a series of reactions that generate electrons which generate ATP — the cell's ‘fuel’. Many scientists, most notably Alfred Nobel, have sought to develop molecules which contain huge amounts of energy safely. These molecules can be used to build civilization — or destroy life.
THE NON-LTE SPECTROSCOPY OF MOLECULAR REACTIONS USING THE EXOMOL DATABASE
