70 



METABOLIC PROCESS 

 PATTERNS 



FRITZ LIPMANN, research chemist, Massachusetts general 



HOSPITAL, boston; RESEARCH FELLOW IN BIOCHEMISTRY AND SURGERY, 



HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL 



IVe have hitherto failed in our comprehension oj life 

 mainly because we have been involved in tlie absolute 

 method of dealing with things. 



E. NOBLE (14) 



THE CEASELESS occurrence of metabolic processes in a 

 living cell has long been understood to imply at large a need 

 of energy for maintenance of active life. There was, however, and still 

 is, only a vague realization of the tasks for which uninterruptible flux 

 of energy is needed. A first opening here appeared when, through 

 fuller chemical resolution, recently, reaction chains unfolded which, 

 rather unexpectedly, were found to involve a multitude of substances 

 containing phosphate in peculiar linkages. When the way in which 

 these phosphate intermediates are manipulated in the cell was inidcr- 

 stood, it became possible to see clearly the connection between phos- 

 phate cycles and transformation and transport of energy. \n all cells 

 studied, a chemical network of energy distribution, the adenylic acid 

 system, was found to be present and able to carry in the form of special 

 energy-rich phosphate bonds standard portions of energy, amounting 

 to about one-fiftieth of that liberated by total combustion of a mole of 



