SciComm

  All living organisms need energy to sustain life. Living cells and organisms can extract energy from their environment and use it to power various biological activities like growth, movement, development and reproduction. This unique ability to harness chemical energy from the environment and channel it to perform biological work defines life. Life can perform a remarkable variety of energy conversions. Chemical energy present in food is converted to different forms of energy for various purposes through metabolic reactions.   Metabolism refers to a set of chemical reactions occurring in a living cell for sustaining life. Metabolic reactions generate energy from food, synthesise organic compounds that serve as building blocks of biomolecules and excrete toxic wastes. Metabolic reactions can broadly be classified as catabolic or anabolic. Catabolic reactions break down larger molecules into smaller ones and release energy in the process. Anabolic reactions synthesise larger biomol