Bioenergetics is the study of energy flow and transformation in biological systems, focusing on how cells acquire, convert, store, and utilize energy to drive metabolic processes. It encompasses the thermodynamics and kinetics of biochemical reactions, including ATP synthesis, redox reactions, and proton motive force generation across biological membranes. Central topics include oxidative phosphorylation, photosynthetic energy conversion, substrate-level phosphorylation, and the coupling of catabolic and anabolic pathways. Bioenergetics provides quantitative frameworks (e.g., Gibbs free energy, redox potentials, chemiosmotic theory) to analyze how cellular structures such as mitochondria, chloroplasts, and bacterial membranes support energy transduction and maintain nonequilibrium steady states required for life.
Mitochondria are essential for cell survival, repair, and adaptation. Not only do they generate most of the energy needed during a cell's life, but they also regulate cell death, calcium balance, and responses to stress. ...
Cell & Microbiology
Mar 4, 2026
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55
During hibernation, brown bears spend up to six months lying almost completely still, without eating, drinking or exercising. When spring arrives, they leave their dens with their muscles largely intact.
Ecology
Mar 1, 2026
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131
New research profiles mitochondrial circular RNAs in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMCs) from young and old human cohorts and probes how mitochondrial circRNAs and the mitochondrial RNA-binding protein GRSF1 relate ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Feb 28, 2026
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74
A recent study by the University of Bonn and University Hospital Bonn and the University of Freiburg shows that the mitochondria appear to be able to influence the number of lipid droplets in the cell using a mechanism that ...
Cell & Microbiology
Feb 26, 2026
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156
Anyone who has seen a hummingbird poking her beak deep into a trumpet creeper blossom, or a honeyeater using its brush-tipped tongue to extract nectar from eucalyptus flowers, has witnessed something that, from a human perspective, ...
Evolution
Feb 26, 2026
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48
A new method for cleaning household water supplies in rural communities in Nepal is being developed by an international team of scientists. The solution removes harmful bacteria from the water by inserting non-toxic metal ...
Environment
Feb 25, 2026
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15
Carbon dioxide (CO₂) connects us to the natural world: What we breathe out becomes fuel for forests. But inside our own bodies, CO₂ has a secret life. It sparks chemical reactions, shapes metabolism, and may even act as a ...
Cell & Microbiology
Feb 23, 2026
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14
Nucleotide synthesis—the production of the basic components of DNA and RNA—is essential for cell growth and division. In most animal cells, this process depends closely on properly functioning mitochondria, the organelles ...
Cell & Microbiology
Feb 17, 2026
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162
Among the many trillions of microorganisms in the human gut is Blautia luti. Like many gut bacteria, it metabolizes indigestible dietary components, such as fiber in the form of carbohydrates. This process produces, among ...
Cell & Microbiology
Feb 6, 2026
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20
For decades, scientists assumed that order drives efficiency. Yet in the bustling machinery of mitochondria—the organelles that crank out adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the universal "energy currency" of cells—one of the most ...
Cell & Microbiology
Feb 6, 2026
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