Some particles were a bit more friendly in their relationships and they got together as couples, this particular ensemble of particles is known as Helium (2 protons & 2 electrons & 2 neutrons). This too was quite a popular arrangement although not quite as common as the Hydrogen union.
At
some point all parties have to end, so at the end of the night all of
the elements are kicked out into the Universe and the lights are all
turned out inside the star.
But as we know the Universe has that Gravity rule, and the ejected elements are also inclined to get together. These get-togethers are made up of different types of party goers and each combination has got a different name. A particularly interesting type of get-together is known as a planet.
On one particular planet 400 million years ago, in a period known as the Archaen era, an incredible combination of elements produced a neat trick, it learned how to replicate and also grow in complexity. Over time (quite a lotactually) these replicators went through stages from simple cell-like structures to bacteria, and as they did so they
changed the environment from one that was mostly carbon dioxide and a
few other gases, but very little oxygen, to one that was still mostly
carbon dioxide but now had sufficient oxygen so that other more complex replicators called plants could not only survive but flourish. The newly established plant life accelerated the change in the atmosphere that the bacteria had set in motion, so much so that it eventually created an environment that was suitable to allow the appearance of a particularly complex form of replicator known as a Human.
So
from the very earliest moments of the Universe when the fundamental
particles were bubbling into existence through to their dissemination as
formed elements from exploding stars, an essential concept to understand is that we, and all life, are ‘stardust’.
This principle idea; that
you are a localised flow of solids, liquids, gases and vibrations, is
central if you want to take your potential to its ultimate limits.
The Energy of Life
Certain
common pieces of ‘knowledge’ are what we call a ‘Lie to Children’.
‘Lies to Children’ also go by the name of a ‘Wittgenstein’s Ladder’. A
‘Lie to Children’ is a teaching tool that simplifies a complex concept
to make it easier to access and understand. However, as the name
‘Wittgenstein’s Ladder’ implies it is then meant to lead on to another
step. The following steps then reveal the ‘lie’ and provide more
accurate explanations of the concept(s).
The problem is most people are given a ladder with only one step. Hence ‘Lies to Children’ easily become ‘Lies to Adults’.
So
the fact that we are surrounded by adults that (through no fault of
their own) believe in distorted concepts, the continual ignorant usage
of these concepts in popular media and everyday life, it’s no surprise that we are in this current state of confusion.
To help you see clearly, let’s dig a little deeper. Not too deep though, as it can be a pretty deep hole.
To do this we need to understand how the previously described creation of Life is animated.
The first concept we need to address is Calories. You all know about Calories, those things in food that provide energy, and that
if we consume too many of, or don’t burn enough makes us fat, right?
Well, not quite. This is the first mythological concept that needs to be
dispelled.
Calories
are simply the measure of heat produced by the burning (combustion) of
food in a fairly basic piece of equipment called a bomb calorimeter. Now here’s the problem, the instrument cannot distinguish whether a potato is being burnt, or a table leg. They both give off calorific measurements, but do you think a table leg would nourish as well as a potato?
That’s
only the first step. Foods in a bomb calorimeter are burnt. We are
neither a bomb calorimeter, nor do we ‘burn’ anything. The human body
and the way it processes energy is only vaguely associated with the concept of calories.
If
the human body doesn’t burn (combust) fuel, how is it able to derive
energy? Well, combustion is fairly crude and inefficient means of
liberating stored energy, and Nature, being the mother of efficiency,
gave us a much cleaner and effective system. This system is able to
harness the amazing boundless force of the Universe; light.
Our
body, processes food in a number of steps which eventually, via our
mitochondria, extracts the light energy from food and transfers it to a
chemical called Adenosine Tri-Phosphate (ATP).
ATP, and the Solar energy it contains, powers your life.
Let’s delve a little deeper.
Energy
(Photon)
Energy (CHO, PRO, LIP)
Via Photo
Energy
(PRO, LIP)
Humans use
CHO, PRO, LIP
to produce
usable energy
in the
Mitochond
ATP-
usable
energy
CO
2
and H
2
O (products of
metabolism)
Heat
Energy (CHO, PRO, LIP)
Via Photosy
Humanity
evolved by eating mostly plants. That includes the animals we use as
food too, because they all grow from eating plants. Food animals are essentially plants one step further down the chain.
Throughout our evolution, this was it. You either ate vegetation or
wild animals that were grown on vegetation (or other animals that ate
animals grown on vegetation).
It
is commonly believed that plants (and humans and animals) grow from the
soil, and are mostly composed of dirt. Not at all. Plants are composed
mostly of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, which they extract from the air,
plus water, and a tiny handful of minerals from the soil. The
electromagnetic field created by this mixture allows plant leaves to
spread before the sun and to capture photons. Some of this light they
use to provide energy for powering growth but most of it they use to
actually build their structure. All plants, even the largest trees, are
constructed primarily from air and light.
In these plants that we call vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds, light energy is newly caught, lightly held, and readily available to all living creatures. When we eat these plants, their store of light energy is transferred to our flesh or to the animals that eat them (and subsequently to us if we eat the animal).
However, as suggested above Humans do not burn anything in the body to derive energy; especially not calories. Most of our energy is processed in structures known as mitochondria; which is actually a symbiotic modified bacterium.
To save you a lot of biochemistry, after food has been broken down by
digestion into sugar or fat, these go through a number of steps where
they are converted into coenzymes that contain the electrons that are
required to liberate the light energy extracted from food in a process known as oxidative phosphorylation.
This process
transfers the light energy that was captured by plants and subsequently
either directly or indirectly transferred into your body into a
molecule known as ATP. ATP is one molecule of Adenosine with three
phosphates attached by high energy bonds. Don’t worry too much about the
details, just picture the following in your mind
A-P-P-P
Now imagine the phosphate groups (each ‘P’) holding aXmas
cracker (high energy bond represented by the hyphen) with the adjoining
phosphate group. When the body requires energy, for any purpose, a
message is sent to instruct the end phosphate to break away. In doing so
the Xmas cracker is cracked and the stored light energy is released to
power all of the processes in the body. It is ‘the’universal energy currency of your body. But we can only store so much, and that limited supply and the way we can replenish it is the underlying component that determines your ability to live, train and perform.
In the next article I’ll begin to show you how the body uses the energy systems to regenerate its ATP and why this knowledge is vital if your want to excel in your discipline.
www.hpc-uk.net
