Translated material
Towards gluconics
Humanity can create a fundamentally new energy
Everyone knows the legend of Prometheus, who stole heavenly fire and gave it to people. Since then, for thousands of years, the energy of fire has been the main one for humanity. From cooking to lighting and heating rooms. Over the years, thermal power plants have appeared that convert fire energy into electricity. But in any case it was fire. The combustion of oil and gas is again based on the use of fire.Alternative forms of energy to combustion also gradually developed. The energy of falling water was used in mills, then in hydroelectric power plants. The universality of energy forms and the amazing (if you think about it) fact that energy (unlike three-dimensional space and four-dimensional space-time) is one-dimensional allows one to transform one type of energy into another. The people who were the first to understand how universally electricity (to be more precise, the energy of the electromagnetic field) can be used in civilization were absolute geniuses.
However, using electricity has disadvantages. The main thing is that electricity cannot be stored, like, for example, coal. On the contrary, energy can be stored in hydrocarbons for many millions of years. Creating batteries, even ones that only allowed a car to move, is problematic. It is even more problematic to stock up on electricity sufficient to, say, autonomously heat a house for a year: such problems are not even raised.
Is electricity a universal form that should ensure the strategic existence of humanity in the future? To a large extent this is certainly true. But not in everything. Electricity in large quantities must be consumed immediately, and this is a significant drawback. Is there an alternative to electricity as a universal form that provides energy to civilization? Undoubtedly.
There is a universal transformation of energy on earth, radically different from all types of its use by man today. In living nature, the principles of obtaining, converting and using energy are completely different. They are based on chemical reactions. Starting with the absorption of a quantum of light in a process called photosynthesis. Moreover, the total amount of energy produced by photosynthesis on Earth exceeds the power of all power plants many times over. With the help of biochemical processes, everything or almost everything that a person does today is carried out. As a result of processes called biochemical, living beings move, see, hear, and finally think. To accomplish all this, living nature has one universal fuel - glucose. Glucose derivatives and only they (or, to put it more accurately, almost only them) have provided energy for all types of plants and animals for the past 4 billion years. Versatility and consistency that amazes. And they make you think: is it possible to build the energy used by humanity on the same principles on which energy exists in nature?
I'm sure it is possible. It would make sense to use as a universal fuel the same chemical that powers all forms of life: glucose and its derivatives.
Is there any other way for civilization? In 2004, the concept of altervital civilization (from the Latin altera vitae, another life) was put forward. A general question was posed: is it possible to have a civilization that would not disturb the balance of the biocenosis with inanimate nature and would be completely or almost completely waste-free? This most important strategic question was answered, in principle, positively. In this note, attention is drawn to one of the key elements of altervital civilization: altervital energy, that is, one that is structured like the energy in living nature.
Modern technogenic civilization receives, stores, distributes and utilizes energy in a completely different way from how these processes are carried out in living nature. Estimates show that energy consumption in the biocenosis is orders of magnitude (at least ten times) higher than the energy utilized by humanity by burning natural energy resources (oil, gas and coal). At the same time, not only individual organisms, but also the biocenosis as a whole are in global balance with nature.
Is it possible to build human energy systems by analogy with how this is done in the living world? And if so, how can this be done?
The universal primary source of energy in the living world is the Sun. The absorption of light quanta is carried out in photosynthesis, as a result of which glucose is synthesized, which is a universal biological fuel. For long-term energy storage, glucose is converted into its derivatives: in plants into the branching (dendrimeric) molecule alpha-glucose starch, in animals into the dendrimer alpha-glucose - glycogen. In addition, more than half of tree trunks and branches by weight consist of the linear form of beta-glucose - cellulose. In dendrimeric forms of glucose, when energy is utilized from the molecule, the closing branches of the links are split off one by one. This allows us to make the process of energy utilization in nature universal and controllable at the molecular level.
Starch accumulates in plant cells. These molecules form a reserve of nutrients, while molecules of glucose monomers are not stored in reserve, but are either converted into polymer forms (linear - cellulose or dendrimer - starch and glycogen), or are quickly consumed. Starch is found in large quantities in all grains - wheat, rice, barley, etc., as well as potatoes. In industry, glucose is obtained by hydrolysis of starch. The total mass of starch synthesized by nature during the year is estimated at hundreds of billions of tons.
Glycogen is the main form of carbohydrate storage in animals. Glycogen is a polysaccharide that is deposited in the form of granules in the cytoplasm of cells and is broken down into glucose when there is a lack of it in the body. Glycogen is stored most in the liver (up to 6% of the liver mass) and in the muscles (about 1% of the muscle mass).
Cellulose is fiber, the main building material of the plant world, forming the cell walls of trees and other higher plants. One starch macromolecule contains from several hundred to several thousand units, and a cellulose molecule contains over 10 thousand units. Cellulose forms fibers that give the plant rigidity and strength. Thus, cellulose fiber is stronger than steel wire of the same diameter.
Cellulose, starch and glycogen have the same chemical formula (C6H10O5)n. However, their physical and biological properties differ significantly. In organisms they are utilized by various enzymes.
According to modern views, the utilization of energy stored in hydrocarbons occurs in three stages, each subsequent of which is carried out only as a result of the previous one.
1) Glycolysis: anaerobic conversion of glucose into pyruvate (pyruvic acid), resulting in the production of ATP.
2) The aerobic process of oxidative phosphorylation (also called the Krebs cycle), coupled with the final product of glycolysis, pyruvate, through its oxidation.
3) Chemiosmosis, which occurs in mitochondrial membranes, is controlled by several enzymes and leads to the formation of additional ATP molecules.
As a result of these three processes, up to 38 ATP molecules are produced from one glucose molecule.
The adenosine triphosphate-adenosine diphosphamide pair is a “molecular shuttle”. ATP is rich in energy because it contains two phosphorus hydrogen bonds. When these bonds are broken, free energy is released that can be used in metabolism.
ATP is constantly consumed by the body. The human body consumes approximately 40 kg of ATP per day, while the total mass of ATP in the human body is about 50 g. ATP is never stored for long: it can complete hundreds and even thousands of cycles per day. During intensive work, ATP consumption is up to 500 g per minute. The total mass of ATP produced in the body per day can be several times greater than the mass of the animal, although at any given moment in the body there is hundreds or even thousands of times less of this universal energy substance. According to the type of functioning of the ATP-ADP pair, it is a two-stroke molecular engine that returns to its original state after each cycle. The fundamental difference between natural energy engines and internal combustion engines or turbines is that they operate at ambient temperature, with control over the functioning of each molecule, are waste-free, much more efficient and economical.
In the living world, energy is linked to many processes that ensure life. The narrow scope of the article makes it possible to dwell on only one of them, and even then lapidarily. As such an example, let us consider in the most general terms how the functioning of muscles, a universal mechanism used by multicellular organisms to convert chemical energy into mechanical energy, is linked to gluconics. Muscles consist of actin (thin) and myosin (thick) filaments, which in turn consist of monomers grouped into clusters. As a result of multiple repetitions of the cycle, carried out with the participation of the ATP-ADP pair (products of enzymatic decomposition of glucose) in each of the clusters in which actin and myosin monomers are grouped, muscle contraction occurs.
If it were possible to build an engine that works like a muscle (without waste, at a temperature close to the ambient temperature and extremely efficiently), this would be a colossal strategic achievement of civilization. The same applies to each of the many other processes linked to glucose as a universal biological fuel that provide vision, hearing, touch, digestion, heart function, brain function and many other functions.
While generations of technology in key areas of industry in the early 21st century change every few years, wildlife is extremely conservative. The same biological mechanisms, once created, function virtually unchanged in all organisms (the number of species on earth number in the millions) for billions of years. Photosynthesis, glycolysis, the Krebs cycle, chemiosmosis and muscle function are unchanging universal mechanisms.
Is it possible to create motors that work on the same principle as muscles? Undoubtedly. Even if it takes (relatively speaking) $100 billion and 20 years of international effort, it will pay off. Because muscles function at room temperature, extremely efficiently and in balance with nature, releasing no waste at all into the atmosphere - and the body!
The same applies to many other mechanisms in living nature that use universal fuel: glucose and its derivatives.
Is it possible in civilization to create energy based on the same principles as energy in living nature, using the universal fuel - glucose? A detailed analysis of this problem with the participation of experts in various fields of knowledge (discussion of the results of which goes far beyond the scope of a newspaper article) showed that this is certainly possible. There are no insurmountable technological difficulties. The name of the new field of energy - gluconics - seems to be the most correct and natural.
It goes without saying that gluconics is a complex problem. Just as for the development of the electric power industry it was necessary to create a whole series of interconnected systems (generators, electric motors, energy networks that transmit energy over long distances, power plants, transformers, etc.), to create gluconics as an industry it will also be necessary to create a whole range of technologies , the first generation of which should be completed more or less simultaneously.
1) Obtaining glucose through photosynthesis does not pose a problem, since tens of thousands of tons of glucose are produced per second in plants and photoplankton around the globe.
2) Transformation of glucose into forms that can be stored for a long time and are convenient for transportation or movement along glucose lines. Such forms can be glycogen, starch and other glucose derivatives. In this case, it is advisable to use enzymatic processes that exist in nature.
3) Utilization of glucose, its decomposition. These processes, occurring in mitochondria, as well as in the Krebs cycle and chemiosmosis, must be separated into a separate process.
4) Linking the energy obtained as a result of the decomposition of glucose with technology. First of all, such technologies should be the conversion of the chemical energy of glucose and its decomposition products into mechanical and electrical energy. Such processes are known in nature. The muscle converts the energy stored in glycogen into mechanical energy. The electric ramp converts glucose energy into electricity. Other forms of docking, similar to those used in living nature, are also possible. For example, the transformation of glucose energy into color patterns and scales is carried out in the body of a chameleon. The perception of visual signals occurs in the eye. And so on.
Of particular interest is the interface between glycolytic energetics and nanotechnology. If such a docking is carried out, the molecules providing energy supply and energy utilization mechanisms will have the same scale - nanometers. Which in itself opens up enormous prospects for technology. Especially considering that these mechanisms function extremely efficiently in living nature.
Gluconics can also become part of the global energy sector. Typically, global energy refers to the creation of power plants with colossal capacities. However, this understanding of global energy seems unjustifiably narrow. Photosynthesis is no less a global energy mechanism on Earth than the processes that ensure the functioning of power plants. The power produced by the absorption of a single quantum of light is very small indeed. However, trillions of tons of phytoplankton and tens of billions of tons of plants carry out the process of photosynthesis an enormous number of times simultaneously, producing capacities that exceed those utilized by humans today by many times.
The creation of the gluconics industry, proposed in this article, is nothing more than the use in technology of energy storage mechanisms already existing in nature. Therefore, in the future, gluconics is no less a global energy source than nuclear, thermal and hydroelectric power plants, in all respects.
The transition of civilization to methods of generating and converting energy similar to those carried out in nature is natural. Moreover, from a strategic perspective it is inevitable. There is simply no reasonable alternative to such a transition. It goes without saying that the creation of gluconics will require significant financial resources and the coherent efforts of all intellectual humanity. The transition of energy to gluconics (using glucose and its derivatives as universal fuel) may take 20 years or more. The transfer of technologies to principles similar to those used in living nature may require more time, but also on a scale of decades, not centuries. However, such joint efforts of humanity and financial costs will pay off handsomely. Because after this, technogenic civilization will be able to develop and exist in harmony with nature.
There is a clear antagonism between the technologies of our time and nature, while symbiosis remains between living and inanimate nature. The word “symbiosis” is usually used only to describe the interaction between living organisms. Meanwhile, the use of the term “symbiosis” to describe the interaction of biocenosis with inanimate nature is completely justified. Life is inscribed in inanimate nature. It is not only in balance with the inorganic world, but also significantly influences its stationary state, which has been established for 4 billion years.
If life were to disappear, the composition of the atmosphere would change very quickly, and with it the climate, temperature balance and many other characteristics of our planet, tuned (so to speak) like the finest instrument. If life on Earth disappeared, the climate changes occurring now, compared with the cataclysms that would occur if the biosphere completely disappeared, would seem like insignificant fluctuations.
Humanity must learn to fit into nature. An essential and, moreover, key element of the transition from antagonism between technogenic civilization and nature to harmony between them is the creation of gluconics. This is incomparably more promising and realistic than, say, hydrogen energy (on which more than $10 billion was spent - and almost completely in vain). It is no accident that the allocations allocated for this industry, which supposedly replace oil and gas, as much spoke at the end of the twentieth century, are everywhere curtails.
As for gluconiki, the situation is completely different. The effectiveness of its use is proved by life in the most literal meaning of the word. Gluconics is the energy of the future of mankind, it is a universal system of generation, storage and use of energy in living nature. The use of glucose as a universal fuel is absolutely necessary so that the technogenic civilization has existed thousands, and possibly millions of years, and not die out from the growing imbalance with nature every year. Gluconics as a universal energy of civilization does not have a long -term alternative. It will be created. This is my absolute conviction.