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Jamie sat bolt upright.
A hand shot up. “Moving things across a membrane against the concentration gradient.” explanation of active transport
The sodium ion looked shocked. It had been going the wrong way, against the current. But the pump didn't care. It cracked another ATP. Heave . Another ion. Heave . Against the flow. Uphill. Spending energy like a miser spends gold. Jamie sat bolt upright
And then Jamie saw it. Not with eyes, but with imagination. It had been going the wrong way, against the current
But the phone was dead. The phone needed sodium. Not outside the glass. Inside . The phone was the cell’s mitochondria, screaming for fuel. The sodium had to get into the glass, against its natural drift.
It was a cell refusing to crumble into equilibrium. It was a tiny, furious bouncer at the door of life, grabbing molecules by the scruff of the neck and shoving them where they didn't want to go. It cost energy. It was hard. But without it, the phone stayed dead. The nerve couldn't fire. The muscle couldn't twitch. The heart couldn't beat.
Ms. Albright was going to get the best damn explanation of active transport she had ever seen.