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Understanding Biological Energy

Get an introduction to energy and explore how humans and other living things obtain and use their biological energy sources.

3,804 enrolled on this course

Understanding Biological Energy

3,804 enrolled on this course

  • 4 weeks

  • 3 hours per week

  • Digital certificate when eligible

  • Introductory level

Find out more about how to join this course

Discover applications of biological energy, from human energy to photosynthesis

On this course, you’ll learn what energy actually is and how living things acquire and convert it.

You’ll find out how biological energy is stored and released in fossil fuels and what advances in agriculture mean for feeding the world’s growing population.

As you explore biological energy in industry, you’ll consider the ways science can help us to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels as well as ways we might use and learn from plants to provide energy in the future.

You’ll also discover the concept of ‘energy overload’ and how it is threatening our bodies’ energy balance today.

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Skip to 0 minutes and 6 seconds Living things need energy. Everything they do needs energy. Organisms need it to move, to sense their environment, to reproduce, to grow. They need energy just to stay alive. But the way life gets and uses energy is complicated. Take humans, for instance. We store our food’s chemical energy in an energy currency molecule, ATP, by a process called “cellular respiration.” This metabolic pathway has dozens of steps and goes from biochemistry to physics and back again. The energy in our food comes from 93 million miles away in the form of sunlight, and is captured by plants in photosynthesis. I’m Dr. James McEvoy. I work in the Department of Biological Sciences at Royal Holloway University of London.

Skip to 0 minutes and 56 seconds And I’m the designer and leader of this course in biological energy. If you enrol, you’ll learn how respiration and photosynthesis work, gaining insight into the energetic principles that underlie these pathways. But biological energy isn’t just about biochemistry. The last 200 years, and particularly the decades since the Second World War, have seen a biological energy boom. Our energy economy is based on fossil fuels– ancient stores of photosynthetic energy. And they have changed our world. We’ve made fertilisers and grown new crop varieties that store more of the sun’s energy in their grain– the so-called “Green Revolution.” While good news overall, many of us now suffer from too much biological energy.

Skip to 1 minute and 46 seconds Besides the environmental effects of fossil fuel use, there are human health effects, too, like obesity type 2 diabetes. But the story doesn’t end there. The future of biological energy doesn’t lie with fossil fuels, and the Green Revolution isn’t finished. You’ll learn how modern biotechnology and biofuels can reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, and how biology is inspiring renewable energy researchers in a warming world. Biological energy is a vital and wide ranging topic. And it will be as important in the future as it always has been. It’s a fascinating journey, and I hope you can join me on it.

What topics will you cover?

  1. Introduction to energy: How living things use energy; A brief history of thermodynamics; Enthalpy, entropy and free energy
  2. Human energy: Humans as chemotrophs; Chemical energy from food; Mitochondria; ion gradients and ATP
  3. Photosynthesis: Green plants and autotrophic bacteria; Solar energy to food; Oxygenation and evolution
  4. Industrial energy: Fossil fuels; Biomass; Artificial photosynthesis

When would you like to start?

Start straight away and join a global classroom of learners. If the course hasn’t started yet you’ll see the future date listed below.

  • Available now

Learning on this course

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Describe what energy is and how concepts of energy, enthalpy and entropy were developed
  • Summarise how humans obtain, convert and store energy
  • Describe oxygenic photosynthesis and its ecological significance
  • Compare biologically-derived energy sources, both renewable and non-renewable

Who is the course for?

This course is designed for young learners who have studied at least GCSE science (chemistry, biology, or physics) and are interested in pursuing the connections between these subjects.

It will be of particular interest to those looking to study the life sciences at university level.

The course is also suitable for those who are simply interested in how living things store and use energy.

What do people say about this course?

This was an excellent course.

"This was an excellent course. Exceptionally good presentation making a difficult and specialised subject interesting and relatively easy to follow. Thank you"

The course leader was an extremely impressive communicator.

"An excellent course. The course leader was an extremely impressive communicator. Thanks to all."

Who will you learn with?

I teach and research biological chemistry in the Department of Biological Sciences at Royal Holloway, University of London. Before that I taught in Denver, Colorado, and studied at Oxford and Yale.

Who developed the course?

Royal Holloway, University of London

Queen Victoria presided over the grand opening of Royal Holloway in 1886. Since then the College has continued to grow in size and status to become one of the top research-led institutions in the UK.

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Ways to learn

Choose the best way to learn for you!

Subscribe & save

$27.99

For the first two months. Automatically renews

Develop skills to further your career

  • Access to this course
  • Access to 1,000+ courses
  • Learn at your own pace
  • Discuss your learning in comments
  • Tests to boost your learning
  • Digital certificate when you're eligible

Cancel for free anytime

Buy this course

$134/one-off payment

Fulfill your current learning need

  • Access to this course
  • Learn at your own pace
  • Discuss your learning in comments
  • Tests to boost your learning
  • Printed and digital certificate when you’re eligible

Limited access

Free

Sample the course materials

  • Access expires 25 Apr 2024

Find out more about certificates, Unlimited or buying a course (Upgrades)

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