The C3 Cycle, Calvin Cycle, Calvin-Bension Cycle, The CBC, Carbon Fixation, etc...

How does the cosmos turn air into a pear?  With a little help from Rubisco, a strange microscopic fairy found in plant cells.  A cow is processed grass and grass is process air.  That burger you are eating is simply a modified green house gas known as carbon dioxide, mostly.  That burger also has a little oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen too..oh yeah those are gasses too!

Much of this carbon capture (fixation) process is a recycling of molecules.

Almost forgot, see the flag in the corner, next to captured sunshine...aka glucose, that is the primary component of popcorn on the chips!

Yumm!

The Calvin Cycle Flag Goal with Lego-Style Dice

All the steps that makes a molecule of sugar, oh so sweet it is.  This 3-D Lego-Dice Nintendo model shows all the molecules needed to make a single glucose.  It really is like one wacky Willy Wonka' Factory inside the Stroma of the Chloroplasts of plant cells.

The Nintendo icons act as the power up molecules that help keep things running.  The sugar shuffle is separated below so you can try and make sense of the process.  The dots on the Lego-Dice represent the number of Carbon atoms in each molecule.  The are stacked because that is how many molecules are need to run the whole miracle machine.

Flags are used in these models to show the goals in each process.  Enjoy!

The Calvin Cycle Flag

The Calvin Cycle is so hard to explain.  Here is another friendly simplified diagram based upon Super Mario Bros. and using dice.  The key to understanding is to look at the dots which represent the number of carbons in each molecule.  From simple Carbon Dioxide the magical enzyme Rubisco turns air in to a pear, or everything else we may like to eat.  So remember, that a cow is mostly processed grass, and grass is processed air.  That special green house gas, is known as thy holy Carbon Dioxide.  Of course, it's power by sunshine, in a matter of speaking.


This life giving chemical reaction has many names.  Too many!  In fact, this is why many people hate science!  It's hard enough to make sense of this stuff, and then all the different various names just make it totally FUBAR!

Other names include:
C3 Cycle
Calvin Cycle
Stromal Reaction
Calvin-Benson Cycle
Dark Reaction (but it does not require darkness to happen!)
Light Independent Reaction (but ATP and NADPH require light, WTF!)
Light Not Required Reaction
The Carbon Fixation Process (Who knew carbon was broken?)


Most diagrams also miss out of a starting-entry point for Carbon.  Also this miracle takes place in the stroma which can be thought of as the cytoplasm of the chloroplast, or rather the 'Stromaplasm'.  Finally if you want to see how a 3-Carbon Molecule turns into a 5-Carbon Molecule please visit the SUGAR SHUFFLE LINK. It is the wackiest part of the process that is amazingly complex yet harmoniously perfect.

(Once again watch science video while listening to music!)

Sugar Shuffle Flag - The Ignored Process of the Calvin Cycle, No Longer

Usually represented by a bunch of broken arrows, the sugar shuffle, or regeneration of Ribulose 5-Phosphate is a critical step in making life possible.  It is deemed to complex for regular human brains.  But here you can see the dice acting like molecules.  Each dot, represents a Sacred and Majikal Carbon Atom.


YOU MUST PLAY BOTH VIDEOS AT THE SAME TIME TO GET THE FULL EFFECT
Best option to watch plant video with sound track

The Sugar Shuffle with Dice and Nintendo

Plants do miracles all the time.  They take air and turn it into a pear!  That banana you are eating is made up of a specially kind of energized air!  Tastes good I hope!  Essentially, carbon dioxide is incorporated into a five carbon molecule, by the almighty RuBisCo Enzyme.

Note that the dice with dots represent the number of carbon atoms in a molecule.  The other elements like oxygen and hydrogen are not included for simplification.  But note, it takes six trips around this cycle to get enough 'carbon playdough' to make glucose, which can later become an apple or orange.

There is a starting point and ending point, which has a blue flag to show the goal of absorbing carbon dioxide. 

Underneath, the caputure of carbon phase, is the Sugar Shuffle, where the molecules that captured that infamous green house gas are replenished.

When you hear about Carbon Dioxide, you might think it's a green house gas, that is true, but it can also be labeled as a food-making-gas.

 Amazing but true, when you break down all the bread or rice that you eat, guess what it is turned into...Carbon Dioxide (most of it).  Think about it, food is actually energized air!  This yummy to be air (CO2) is energized by starlight, aka the Sun.

The process above can be called the Calvin-Benson Cycle or Calvin Cycle.

The one part of the cycle that is hardly ever shown in detail is the regeneration of carbon caputuring molecules in a process called-The Sugar Shuffle.  This is where five 3-carbon molecules become three 5-carbon molecules (which can capture carbon dioxide).

Sugar Shuffle = five 3-Carbon molecules become three 5-Carbons molecules

Domino Sugar & Crisco Logo Modified for the Fun of Science!

The colours of company product are set like the livery of a university.  Sometimes they change, like when a merger happens.

But here we have jaw dropping fun that is a total game changer!  So get ready to be empowered by science and all the samey lamey, blah?

People who do science are such parrots after all.

Have you met a person with an original thought?  Or is everything they say, a routine, that fits into the established discorsial norms of society? 

Nonetheless, all tangents are allowed on this blog!  So we can be thankful for Domino Shuger!

Did you ever notice that sugar is spelled like SUE...GAR?

Also, scientists get the whole thing about sugars all wack!  Usually, most people think that sugar is a sweet tasting white molecule, which can also be brown.  But sugar in science land can mean a whole lot of non-sweetness. Biologists and other scientists forget that what normal society thinks of sugar...which IS sucrose...

...NOT glucose, maltose, galactose, schmactose, furcktose, scmucktose, or stupidose. 

For most of society sugar means sucrose, PERIOD.  But science people like to hi-jack concepts like the original elements that were known as fire, water, air, and earth.  But hey, surely someday another generation down the road will redefine elements and the known scientific elements will be a concept of the past for superstitious folk.

So in honor of random thoughts, and glucose...enjoy this fun post.

Seriously, RuBisCo really is a cool thing, since it takes an inorganic molecule and makes it organic.  The magik is that RuBisCo it turns non-living matter...into living matter. 

BUT...when you think deeply about it, the construct of labeling carbon dioxide as an inorganic substance (not alive) is just an arbitrary hewmaun cerebral construct.  Life is life, with or without the high minded, objective mind to saying so, according to some rational mumbojumbo.


Yet, RuBisCo is a really important enzyme; it can't be overstated how cool it really is.  It is the most abundant part of life that makes all the other forms of life, downstream possible. In the end, be thankful for RuBisCo, and while your at it, Crisco too!

Hexidecimal π Day Flag

Hey it's another π Day flag, but taken from the hexidecimal way of counting.  So the first three digits of π are 3.24 instead of the more familiar 3.14.