How stuff works.

My last post got a bit technical and delved into the finer points of cell biochemistry. For those who would like to learn more about how cells work, I thoroughly recommend the book Metabolism at a Glance (Paperback) by Jack G Salway, Sen. Lecturer in Medical Biochemistry, University of Surrey. It's crammed with diagrams of metabolic pathways.

I've also got Medical Biochemistry at a Glance (Paperback) by Jack G Salway. EDIT: I thoroughly recommend this book, too.

For more general information on nutrition and metabolism, I recommend the book Introduction to Nutrition and Metabolism (Paperback) by David A Bender, Sen. Lecturer in Biochemistry, UCL.

A good website for medical biochemistry information is MedBio.info by Prof. em. Robert S. Horn.

A good website for enzyme structures is Enzyme Structures Database.

Here's a searchable version of Biochemistry by L Stryer. It's a bit dry, but of interest is Food Intake and Starvation Induce Metabolic Changes and Phosphatidate Is a Common Intermediate in the Synthesis of Phospholipids and Triacylglycerols.

Here's NCBI Bookshelf where you can search many textbooks.

Here's an absolutely humongous diagram in .pdf format of Metabolic Pathways. You need a fast machine to view this.

Update: Here are some cool Animations and Computer-Generated Movies by Harvard University.

Here's a YouTube video of ATP Synthase, which takes a proton gradient and, using a molecular motor-generator, converts ADP + Phosphate into ATP, the energy source that cells use.

Happy reading and viewing!