From Oxygen to Energy
To begin we have to understand that all living things, from worms to elephants use and need oxygen for energy. "All organisms use diffusion to exchange substances such as food, waste, gases and heat with their surroundings."[1] Gas exchange is important to all organisms because it transports oxygen from their environment to the individual cells for respiration. This creates energy.
Diffusion is where molecules move from high concentrations to low without using energy. When oxygen gets diffused into the body and cells it ends up in the mitochondria. In humans oxygen gets diffused into the body through our alveoli and capillary membranes then bloodstream. In the mitochondria cellular respiration, which is the process in which glucose is used to make ATP, occurs and this requires oxygen. ATP is in every cell and is what provides us energy. ATP has an adenosine base, attached to a sugar ribose, which is then attached to three phosphate group. (you can see this in the image to the left). As seen in the formula to the right, ATP is used in the formula but energy is only released when one phosphate group bonds breaks.
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Wombats obtain and diffuse energy throughout their body just like humans. When they air travels down the trachea and into their bronchioles which are covered in alveoli. Alveoli are tiny sacks that are on the end of our alveoli. They fill up with air and diffuse, from the high concentrated air sacks to the low concentrated capillaries, and into the bloodstream. Oxygen is then transported through the bloodstream to cells and is used in the mitochondria, like said above to make energy.
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