Quote:
Originally Posted by Fortudinae
Love that Krebs Cycle.
Takes sunlight and uses it to crack CO2 into oxygen and carbon based life. Of course it requires H2O - which it cracks into hydrogen and oxygen - then reassembles as carbohydrate with the carbon supplied by CO2.
Good thing we have this extra CO2 to accelerate production of carbon based fuel for all other life forms dependant on photosynthetic conversion of the inorganic into organic for food and breathable oxygen.
Perhaps I should say photosynthesis instead - in the dumbed down colleges and universities of today students are only required to remember that the Krebs Cycle means photosynthesis - not what photosynthesis is.
We need to cut down on all this dang CO2 - them plants are getting too uppity.
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Perhaps you're referring to the Calvin cycle, also known as the dark, or light-independent reactions. The citric acid, or Krebs cycle is basically the opposite, takes acetyl CoA and produces CO2 and and a variety of energy carrying molecules. Also, the H2O is not consumed in the same cycle that the CO2 is consumed. The glucose (C6H12O6) is actually produced by adding hydrogen to the CO2. The cracking of H2O takes place in a separate cycle, the light-dependent reactions, where H2O is used as a source of electrons, and a certain corrosive, toxic byproduct is made- oxygen.
Don't knock modern colleges too hard- they may be a bunch of liberal weanies for the most part, but you can get a pretty good science education, if you want it.
