Chemistry Flashback: The Oxidation-Reduction Reaction

Oxidation-Reduction reactions are fascinating. Something is oxidized if an electron is removed from it. This is based the fact that oxygen is the most frequent acceptor electrons in a biological system so oxygen frequently oxidizes electrons off of molecules and reduces them into the atmosphere.
Something is reduced if it acquires an electron so oxidation always has to occur with a reduction. The electron moved -- the oxidized electron -- always has to be added somewhere, or reduced, so these two reactions are in equilibrium with each other!
The Law of Thermodynamics states that all chemical systems are proceeding toward a state of maximum disorder and minimum free energy. the reactions that have products with less energy than the original compounds lose energy and are called exergonic reactions. The reactions that do not occur spontaneously and acquire energy (the products have more energy than the original reactants) go against the law of Thermodynamics and are called endergonic reactions. These reactions defy the law of thermodynamics, which is why the do not occur spontaneously. When things simply go with the flow, they go with the laws of nature. More specifically, they go with the law of Thermodynamics, which means the reactions lose free energy, instead of store it, and become more chaotic.
Endergonic reactions are great. Examples of them are running, writing, anything that is planning ahead and storing instead of acting on impulse. My junior year in high school I ceased all of these endergonic (energy creating) reactions and just lived by spontaneous impulse so that the majority of the reactions I had were exergonic. Consequentially, I quickly lost free energy and awareness and created more disorder and chaos. An activity like running is highly endergonic and stores and builds products that are highly energized because it cultivates so much fitness and health. An exercise like eating has a lethargic effect if it is junk food so that behavior would be extremely exergonic. Watching TV is spontaneous, but loses energy while increasing chaos, making it exergonic. Clearly, a high degree of endergonic behavior gives one freedom, clarity and space through order and planning and storing energy. While exergonic behavior loses order and chaos and produces incredible disorder and lack of freedom. Therefore, freedom is most directly acquired through behavior that is endergonic, that results in more energy, more order. However, what seems to lose energy -- like running -- really builds it. Eating, one would think, would produce energy, but in terms of behavior, unless the food was highly nutritious, it can quickly lose energy. Find out what you feel energized after -- endergonic reactions -- and pursue those for their liberty!
Activation Energy is the energy needed to start a reaction, usually so that the reaction produces even more energy. Gasoline has a ton of potential energy but needs activation energy to get it going.
A catalyst is a reaction that influences and impacts chemical bonds so less activation energy is needed. In other words, if a system is really wound up and needs a high amount of activation energy, a catalyst kind of coaxes the bonds, loosens them up, so they go into energy state. An example is if you're trying to seduce a date who is really wound up, and, therefore, you need a high activation energy to her "turned on". A catalyst, like a couple of drinks, loosens those chemical bonds of intimacy so much less activation energy is needed for a reaction to take place.
Because the rate of a reaction depends on the amount of activation energy needed, catalysts incredibly speed up the rate of the reaction. Catalysts are remarkable alleviation to reactions that are stagnant, slow or stymied. In a political situation, in trying to resolve the Middle East, for example, giving up a piece of land would be a great catalyst that would lower activation energy, which could spark a peaceful compromising “reaction”, or treaty.

Nerve Impulses : Now THAT’s Energy!

Within the realm of nerve is the typical neuron, composed of Schwann cells sheathed in an insulating myelin sheath membrane and connected by nodes of Ranvier.

The operation of neurons – how they are activated to move muscles or respond to other neurons – is based primarily on electrical charges. Depolarization, when the interior of a neuron becomes less negative, quickly activates sodium (Na+) channels, which inactivate spontaneously, and gradually activates potassium (K+) channels, which do not inactivate.
It’s fascinating to realize that your emotional responses, like the actor who is not merely being natural but making his material entirely real through method, are simply nerves and these should be expressed in the moment. That is, after why you are feeling them. If the purpose of feeling your nerves and impulses was to suppress them, why would you feel them? It is simply illogical to think that nerves should be denied and buried. Would your your nerves – the excitatory synapses the depolarization of sodium and potassium ions, nodes of Ranvier, myelin sheath, and neurotransmitters – all operate and go through complexity of firing responses and activation's so you can then deny those impulses? No, the nervous system is designed to be denied,to be accessed and to spark and activate potential and exuberant strength.
Understanding how a neuron fires is based on comprehending electrolyte solutions and how the gated ion channels on the nerve membrane. When NaCl is placed in water, Na+ and Cl- separate, creating an electrolyte solution that as a whole is neutral, but the distribution of positive ions (cations) or negative ions (anions) is affected by a concentration gradient, which is stored potential energy (increasing voltage which increase current), for a particular ion, like K+, or by difference in permeability (increasing current), that could allow K+ or only Na+ ot permeate a membrane in the gated ion channels. When the channels open or close, they selectively let specifically Na+ and/or K+ in or out, and this inward or outward flow changes the movement of ions across the nerve membrane.
The Voltage is the measurement of the electrical driving force and it causes ions to move. The movement of the electrical ions is current and current increases when voltage increases (the propulsion for ions to move) or the when a membrane is made more permeable.
The resting state, resting potential, of the negative, interior cell, -70 to -80 mV, is polarized to the positively charged exterior. When the interior of the cell becomes less negative (more positively charged) it undergoes depolarization, and the opposite of depolarization, making something more negatively charged (less positively charged) is hyperpolarization. During a depolarization of the cell, Na+ quickly flows in and if all the Na+ gates are open, the depolarization could be so affective that the polarity of the cell is flipped – the interior becomes more positively charged than the exterior (the opposite condition from the resting potential state, which has the cell’s interior more positively charged). When the polarity of the cell’s interior and exterior flip, action potential has been reached. In a cells save hearth and some smooth muscle, the action potential is a few milliseconds. Immediately after the action potential, the Na+ channels close, are inactivated, and K+ channels open for rapid hyperpolarization.
The neuron cell has three different phases in terms of being able to fire an action potential – impossible to fire, difficult to fire, normal to fire. During the short time that the cell is “resetting” it is in its absolute refractory period, during which another action potential cannot be fired. After that is a longer relative refractory period, where the action potential can fire, but only with a stronger stimulus. Finally, the normal resting potential calls for the normal stimulus. The sequence of the cell firing once the threshold has been reached is similar to a fixed action pattern in a species, which is a sequence of complex movements (like a goose egg-retrieving or a frog using complex musculature to catch an insect after seeing it, or a certain fish that attacks red-underbellied fish), that fired one a sign stimulus occurs.
Hormones are so useful because from a single source, base station, by simply releasing different hormones, the body can control many secretions of different chemicals that come from different sources. Secretin (the first hormone discovered in 1902) is released in the duodenum, but causes the pancreas to release a bicarbonate to protect the stomach lining. Also released from the dudenum is the cholecystokinin hormone that causes gallbladder contractions. The pyloric area of the stomach releases gatrin which causes HCl to be secreted when food enters the stomach. So chewing gum releases the gastrin hormone, causing your stomach to secrete HCl acid!
So with hormones, the duodenum, just with the very few examples above, can control the gallbladder’s bile secretions and the stomach’s insulation. Could nerves have been used instead to activate these things? Yes, but continually firing the nerve all throughout digestion would be fatiguing and a waste of energy, which is why hormones are the most efficient usage of activation by a stimulus in digestion. Could you imagine constantly firing the bladder muscle, instead of releasing ADH, when you didn’t need to pee! It would be exhausting. Hormones are tremendously efficient!