then how could little birds fly across the Atlantic? Let us make a simple calculation. A direct measurement of energy expenditure for free-flying songbirds migrating from Panama to Canada by using doubly labeled water was reported by a big international group [Wikelski M., et. al 2003]. In accordance with their measurements migratory flight used 15.5 kJ* h-1 total energy while flying, which agrees with predicted values estimated from multiple models and wind-tunnel studies [Lindström Å., et.al. 1999; McWilliams S. R., et.al 2004]. For songbirds, one nocturnal non-stop flight for up to 600 km lasts about 7.7 h, which takes 119.35 kJ of energy. At the same time researchers found by direct measurements that individual birds had roughly the same body weight and fat content in the mornings before and after their migratory flights (6% body-weight loss), no change in fat content. For a 30 g bird, 6% is 1.8 g. Each gram of carbohydrate provides four kcal of energy (16.75 kJ), one gram of fat provides nine kcal (37.68 kJ). Direct transformation of 1.8 g of body mass to energy provides from 30 to 68 kJ of energy. In reality only part of weight loss generates energy, so this number would be even less. As we see, from 119 kJ spent less than half would be covered by body mass. For birds flying through Atlantic for 3000-4000 miles non-stop, these calculations demonstrate that they should have lost more than half of their weight during flight, which they do not. So the typical belief that “a few grams of fat can be enough to fuel a hummingbird or a warbler for a thousand miles over the Gulf and beyond” is wrong. Birds need fat to protect their body from the low temperatures and winds, which they meet at high altitudes, but this fat is not enough to fuel their flight.
From the classical point of view migrational flights are impossible. Technically and scientifically speaking, they should fall into the sea halfway across and be drowned but they do not.
But birds do not know this, so they do and have been doing so for thousands of years!
Do they follow another set of physical laws than those affecting inanimate objects?
We do not believe that cells work as a “nuclear reactor,” but we assume that birds may extract energy directly from the air. Birds breathe using a unique system in which air follows a one-way route through the respiratory system. This system is unlike our lungs, in which the air backtracks where it came from. Their system of respiration (breathing) is very efficient - much more efficient than our system. Birds have two relatively small lungs (where gas exchange occurs), but the lungs are augmented by bellows-like air sacs (where no gas exchange occurs). These air sacs keep the lungs perpetually inflated (even when the bird is exhaling). Our lungs alternately fill and empty out. The bird's respiratory system takes up 20% of a bird’s volume (our respiratory system takes up only 5% of our volume). In the bird's respiratory system, air first flows through air sacs (located even inside their hollow bones) that direct fresh, oxygenated air into the tube-like lungs (parabronchi, where gas exchange occurs) both when the bird inhales and when it exhales. We assume that together with molecular oxidation there should exist some alternative way of O2 utilization, which provides metabolic energy.
Radical chain reactions indeed damage important biological molecules in vitro, and ROS are traditionally regarded in biochemical literature as highly hazardous particles. However, a lot of old and recent data urge to assume that ROS are eminently needed for normal vital activity. According to some estimates, 10-15% of oxygen consumed by an animal at rest is routed to the univalent pathway of reduction, along which ROS are generated [Souza, H.P., et.al. 2002]. Under the stressful conditions, when activity of ROS-generating enzymes is amplified, the total oxygen consumption increases by nearly 20%, and supposedly all this excess is univalently reduced [Vlessis A.A. et al. 1995]. Therefore, ROS should play a very important role in normal physiology [Voeikov V. 2001].
Oxygen takes part in chain processes in the organism, which may be presented as follows [Voeikov V. 2001]:
branching. New radicals can recombine with other radicals present in the system and terminate the chain, which they lead. No less important is that the reactions of radical recombination have a unique property – quanta of energy released in such reactions may be equivalent to the energy of photons of visible or even UV-light. Gurwitsch [Gurwitsch A.G., Gurwitsch L.D. 1999] and Szent-Gyorgyi [Szent-Gyoergyi A. 1968] insisted that in the organized milieu of living systems the energy of electron excitation does not easily dissipate into heat, rather it may radiatively or in a radiation-less manner transfer to macromolecules, or to their ensembles. Energy packages equivalent to the energy of light photons released in the reactions of radical recombination may serve for biochemical reactions triggering, while their rhythmic release under certain conditions may suggest their role of pacemakers of metabolic processes [Voeikov, V. 2003].
In every chain reaction up to 8 eV of energy is realized [Voeikov, V. 2003]. For a bird consuming humid air during flight, this may create an extra source of electron-excited states for the generation of ATP in muscles. 1 eV is equal to 1.6*10-19 J, in 1 cm3 of air we have about 1016 oxygen molecules, so to generate 100 kJ a bird needs to process about 106 cm3 of air. During the flight, the respiratory rate of a little bird is 60-160 breathes per minute [McWilliams S. et al. 2003]. We may evaluate that a bird processes about 103 cm3 of air per minute. Therefore, to process 106 cm3 of air bird would need 103 minutes, or 16 hours. This number is quite compatible with duration of migratory flights.
The aim of the above reasoning was not to give detailed biophysical concept of energy transformation in the living system, but rather to pay attention of the reader to several important moments for the current state of biology and medicine.
1.Modern biophysical concepts are not defined yet; they do not give detailed understanding of most basic biological processes.
2.Biological organisms extract energy not only from food, but also directly from air, water, and the sun.
3.External stimuli play a fundamental bio-energetic role by activation of inner vital processes. We may tell that they operate as informational signals for stimulating inner reactions. In other words, subthreshold informational stimulation and consumption, activates a cascade of pro homeo-kinetic activity.
PART II. PRACTICAL BASIS OF ELECTROPHOTONIC GDV ANALYSIS
If it were now to die,
Twere now to be more happy; I fear
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