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> same chemical process Our digestive systems heat and oxidize hydrocarbons to generate kinetic energy? You sure about that?
by zbentley 1y ago
> same chemical process
Our digestive systems heat and oxidize hydrocarbons to generate kinetic energy? You sure about that?
- fooker 1y agoWe do use oxidation to generate energy. Of glucose, not a hydrocarbon, but there are plenty of organisms that use hydrocarbons directly. We don't because we use glucose as our easily transportable fuel, which we evolved because plants happened to produce glucose when we evolved. If there were plants producing some hydrocarbon in fruits we'd have evolved mitochondria to use that instead.
- dgacmu 1y agoDifferent process, same outcome: hydrocarbons are broken down and oxidized into CO2. We just do it with some enzymes in the Krebs cycle instead of doing a high temperature reaction.