23
votes
Accepted
Is lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) metabolized in the body?
Short answer
LSD appears to be enzymatically broken down in the liver.
Background
First off, hormones do not break down anything; enzymes are the work horses that mediate metabolism.
According to a ...
- 51.8k
20
votes
Accepted
Is agriculture really a net contributor of greenhouse gases?
The issue is that it is not always a cycle, when you drain wetlands or burn forests to make more farmland that's not a cycle that is permanent change. A change that can continue having effects for ...
- 13.8k
19
votes
Accepted
Do birds emit infra-red radiation?
Short answer
Birds emit infrared.
Background
Objects with a temperature higher than the background emit detectable infrared (IR). Endothermic (warmblooded) animals keep their body temperatures at ...
- 51.8k
13
votes
Accepted
Why does NAD+ become reduced if it gains a hydrogen proton?
You are correct that reduction is simply a gain of electrons. This results in a decrease in oxidation number.
You know that NAD+ is reduced by this process because it starts off with a positive ...
- 2,472
12
votes
Accepted
What is the purpose of gluconeogenesis?
Gluconeogenesis is not the reversal of the glycolysis, but the generation of glucose from non-carbohydrate precursors (like odd chain fatty acids and proteins). The reason why we have this process is ...
- 51.1k
11
votes
Accepted
Are carbohydrates an essential component of human diet?
From a theoretical perspective this is a very interesting question, mostly because it is difficult to completely abstain from carbohydrate intake on a normal diet. Even the popular low carb diets of ...
- 2,348
11
votes
What is the ultimate source of ADP/ATP in humans?
Phosphorus is a very common nutrient, found in high levels in proteins, which are in such foods as milk and milk products, meat, beans, lentils, nuts, and grains, especially whole grains. Phosphorus ...
- 15.2k
11
votes
Accepted
Origin of the biochemical term, Pi (inorganic phosphate)
This terminology is at least as old as September 1944 when Enzymatic Synthesis of Acetyl Phosphate Journal of Biological Chemistry
155, 55-70 was published by Lipmann, which says:
Inorganic ...
- 726
10
votes
Should we induce fever to assist healing?
Could it be beneficial to artificially induce fever in a person who has an illness if they are not already experiencing fever?
No, not really. Pretty much the only use of hyperthermia in medicine is ...
- 24.5k
10
votes
What is the brain's preferred energy source? Glucose or ketones?
First of all, for those readers with less knowledge of the general principles of biology, I want to state an important, even if obvious, point: The brain doesn't
"prefer" anything. Despite ...
- 474
10
votes
Accepted
Does Glycolysis produce lactate, or pyruvate?
I think you will find all text books (e.g. Berg et al. Ch 16) describe glycolysis as the conversion of glucose to pyruvate, as this is how it has been defined and considered in countless biochemical ...
- 23.3k
9
votes
Is lemon water an alkalizing agent in the body?
Short Answer:
There was an interesting paper that dealt with the pH of urine when citric acid was consumed.
The summary was: There was no increase in urinary pH or total nitrogen in 24 hours ...
- 3,030
9
votes
Accepted
What happens if a non-diabetic receives an injection of insulin?
Blood sugar drops (Hypoglycaemia)
There are several other uses of insulin (other than diabetic treatment)
Some of those could be:
Diagnostics
Psychology (Narcoanalysis)
Parenteral nutrition
...
- 2,603
9
votes
Accepted
Is palmitic acid really that dangerous?
Let's first clarify some concepts. Free fatty acids, including palmitic acid, are not present in animal tissues (or in the diet) to any large extent; they are esterified with glycerol to from ...
- 5,615
9
votes
Accepted
Effect of cold showers after intense training
Taking cold showers(10-15 ℃) after training or workout have many benefits:
It helps in lowering the damaged tissues temperature by constricting blood vessels.
Cold helps numb nerve endings which ...
- 3,269
9
votes
Accepted
How can grass-fed livestock generate fat?
Short answer
Plants typically store energy in the form of starch. Animals, including livestock and humans for that matter, can digest starch, metabolize it into acetyl-CoA and turn it into fat.
...
- 51.8k
9
votes
Why is carbon dioxide produced in alcohol fermentation but not in lactic acid fermentation?
Glycolysis needs a steady supply of NAD+ to happen - this is the driver for the anaerobic oxidation to lactate and ethanol, although this is energetically much less favorable than the complete ...
- 51.1k
9
votes
Accepted
How much energy does a small spider expend per day just waiting for its web to vibrate?
Short answer
Approximately 240 J on a daily basis.
Background
Ballesteros et al. (2018) modeled basal metabolic rates of insects. They reckoned that endotherms, like insects, basically use energy ...
- 51.8k
8
votes
How Does Green Tea Increase Metabolic Rate?
Interesting question! Green tea increases metabolic rate of body because it contains antioxidants known as catechins1. Catechins are actually polyphenol flavonoids, and have been shown by Wang et al ...
8
votes
Accepted
When glucose production is low, the brain begins using ketoacids as energy... how does that work?
Human body is a glucose driven machine which intake carbohydrates and converts to glucose. Energy is yielded from the glucose and glucose is stored as glycogen. When the carbohydrate intake is somehow ...
- 1,874
8
votes
Is lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) metabolized in the body?
LSD is metabolized in the liver in humans by enzymes of the Cytochrome P450 hemoprotein. The specific enzymes are CYP3A4 and CYP2D6.
CYP2D6 is generally regarded as non-inducible (meaning there ...
8
votes
Does food lose some of its mass in form of energy during metabolism?
Physics answer that is a bit silly
If you want to be real technical about physics, mass and energy are the same thing, so any chemical bond that has some energy and is broken results in a change of ...
- 40.1k
8
votes
A biological system to measure time
There are lots of biological clocks, or clocks made of biological components. The circadian clock is an important, though complicated, example. There are excellent engineered clocks that form some of ...
8
votes
Accepted
Why are children more active than adults?
This is a great question!
As I see you are new and you have explained within the comments above that you haven't studied biology much I will keep the explanation short and sweet.
Young children have ...
- 558
7
votes
Why is the brain dependent on glucose?
I want to present another (possibly more practical) approach towards this phenomenon. Lets begin with amino acids as alternatives.
Amino acids, apart from being a source of toxic ammonia, are also ...
7
votes
Accepted
Violation of the law of energy conservation between photosynthesis and respiration?
The Fallacies in the argument
The question contains two main fallacies (some would say sleights of hand) in the energetic comparison of glucose synthesis from CO2 in the Calvin cycle and glucose ...
- 23.3k
7
votes
Accepted
When you lose weight, how does the mass exit your body?
as CO2 and water
in respiration sugar (or fat) is combined with oxygen to produce energy(ATP and heat), water, and CO2.
fats are converted to Acetyl Co-A just like glucose is, the rest of the ...
- 13.8k
7
votes
Can radiation exposure cause cancer later in life even if no traces of radioactive material are present in the body anymore?
Yes it can, because exposure alone can cause mutations in your genes which is usually the main cause of cancer.
For example, when we get exposed to UV light for longer periods of time, we can get ...
- 559
6
votes
Why are many fruits sour?
Short answer
Great question! I have done some research on the topic and found so much interesting information. It still seems like a topic that i being researched on, but so far, the research shows ...
- 3,079
6
votes
Accepted
What are the differences between how glucagon and cortisol work to increase blood sugar?
Glucagon and cortisol are VERY different types of hormones, though each of them can affect glucose metabolism and effectively can increase glucose concentrations in the blood (albeit through different ...
- 2,348
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