The Music of Life
Dr Mike Explains the Krebs Cycle
Highly recommended is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOncWQUpMzc
'Krebs Cycle | Made Easy!'
Many many interesting details in this video, but:
If you just look at the carbon skeletons then glycolysis is going 6 -> 3 -> 2 as a glucose becomes two pyruvates and then two acetyl-CoA
And the Krebs cycle goes 6 -> 6 -> 5 -> 4 -> 4 -> 4 -> 4 -> 4 as an acetyl-CoA turns oxaloacetate into citrate into isocitrate into alphaketoglutarate into succinyl-CoA into succinate into fumarate into malate into oxaloacetate.1
Because glycolysis has produced two acetyl-CoAs from a single glucose, each glucose causes the Krebs cycle to spin twice.
This is great. Now I can whistle glycolysis (632) and the Krebs cycle (66544444).
You can even interleave them so it's (632) (66544444) (66544444) to represent a glycolysis causing two turns of the TCA cycle. And repeat for all time.
The Music of Life!
I can almost hear the crackling as the hydrogen-thieving molecules push protons across the inner membrane and the whirring as the little motor charges up the ATP.
If you don't know what I'm talking about with this 'whistling numbers' thing, then you can just turn the numbers into musical notes and play them on a piano
(let's choose 'no sharps' / Cmajor / Aminor / Ddorian etc)
AED AAGFFFFF AAGFFFFF
Sounds Dorian to me. Most appropriate!
Having a bit of an appreciation for chromaticity, I'm tempted to use sharps for CoA.
Then it's (63#2) and (665#44444).
A,E,D# (rest) A,A,G,F#,F,F,F,F (rest) A,A,G,F#,F,F,F,F (rest) and repeat ad inf.
It won't suit everyone's ear, but it's better than bloody Berg.
For the avoidance of doubt, I am back in ketosis, without the slightest trouble, and my mind seems fully functional again.
Those with the eyes of eagles might notice that Dr Mike has elided one or two steps compared to their textbooks. Dr Mike is wise.
The two missing stages are unstable short-lived intermediate reaction steps. You could stick them in as grace notes I guess. But most reactions have a few intermediate states. You’re going to end up with a lot of grace notes for not much increase in clarity.