In this article, I am going to share very precious learning, that I got from nature. So, sit back and hold tight! Because you are going to enjoy it.

It was the time of the late springs of 2010. This is the time when lilies start to grow, and by the end of summers, they blossom. Lilies are my favorite flower, the vibrant colors and elegant looks are something that mesmerises me since always. The charisma of luck played its part and one of my neighbors bought lilies. “ Aunty! Can have a bulb of Lilly? I like the flowers a lot.” I asked her. Of course, no person can resist a request from a child of that age. So, I managed to get one. I planted it in a beautiful self-painted pot, with the help of my mom. It became my routine to water it, to till the soil every week, to move it at the proper location where it can thrive with the sunlight, etc. All I wanted, was a beautiful golden Lily flower, that I would gift to my mom.

I got it. My fruit of patience and hard work,  my beautiful lily. “It was obvious, I cared for it, that’s why it bore that beautiful flower!” I said to myself. However, my thinking was going to change completely.

Days after, I was walking back home from school. I was a bit sad because I had a bad day. There, used to be a hill with a forest near my house that I had to cross on the way to my home. While walking, I saw a dandelion. It was full of golden flowers, waving with the winds as if it was saying “Hello young man! Don’t be grumpy. Come here I’ll make your day.”. Believe it or not, all the sadness was gone. Then I looked around and saw a tree of ‘Gulmohar’. Across the path, there was a tree of ‘Golden shower’. All these blooming, with the wonderful flowers.
The canvas of thoughts started to unravel in my young mind. “ How can this happen? How can these plants be blooming, out in the wilderness? Is there anyone taking care of them? Doesn’t seem so!?”.
I came back home. Wrapped in thoughts, I visited my Lily plant. “ What if it was meant to be, and I was a mere side actor?” I wondered. I opened the encyclopedia (the internet wasn’t a thing in my town back then) and tried to understand how do the wild plants grow. All I got was some complex scientific words, with an understanding that they have got nothing. They are just out there, struggling with the vigorous winds, under the harsh summer heat. I even found wild lilies. Mine was just golden, but wild lilies come in a lot of vibrant colours and some are even multi-coloured!
I got the answer, It was clearly meant to be. My lily was born to beautify the world by its flowers, and the same deal was with the other plants. No matter where they are, out in the chilling mountain ranges of the Himalayas, sub-tropical forests of Madhya Pradesh, and even the tropical wilderness of southern India! They all are unique and equally beautiful.

Today, we can see people grappling with everyday challenges. Some of them fight, and some of them give up. We see the headlines flooding with the harsh steps people take when they fail to achieve what they aspire for. Everyone fails in one thing or the other. I had tasted failure and I believe you might have faced it too. If not, you must remember my words for future, because someday you might face it. “Failure is not an antonym, but a synonym of success”.
The struggle makes you immune, and wilderness teaches you life lessons. But you have to keep on evolving. Whether you are a potted plant in the protected homely environment or a free sapling on your own out in the middle of woodlands. Because the bottom line is, “ You are born to blossom.”

Before we understand respiration, let’s do a few experiments.

You might be aware of the fact, that candle stops burning when we light it and cover it with a glass jar. In other words, when we stop the flow of air.

You can also think about coal. Ever wondered why the corn seller uses a fan while roasting the cob? That’s because he is increasing the flow of air, to make the coal burn faster.

From the above two experiments, it might be clear to you that fuel alone is not sufficient to produce energy. The wax in the candle or the coal in corn sellers stove cannot burn unless there is the right amount of air.

 Now you can consider that the food we eat acts as a fuel for us. But to produce energy from it, we need the flow of air inside our bodies. This is the reason that we start panting (breathe heavily) when we run, and breathe calmly when we are resting, depending on the amount of energy we need.

 Biological creatures are marvels of nature! Us and every living being are unique. There are some organisms that can derive the energy from their food with very little or absolutely no air! The examples are fish and yeast.

Chemistry Behind Respiration

“Chemistry” is fun isn’t it? If it’s not, it will be. Let’s meet few of our friends:

 Hydrogen

He is really small and favorite of his friends. His friends also call him ‘H’

Carbon

 He is the cool guy of the group. He keeps his friends together, holding hands in hands. They also call him the big “C”

Oxygen

She is playful and energetic. She hardly remains alone and is always found with her friends. Her nickname is “O”

They have a group called “The Elements” with a lot of members. They might look small, but they are the building blocks of everything that we see around! We will meet the other members later, while these three will help us to understand respiration.

The food we eat gives us “Glucose” after digestion. Glucose is basically raw fuel for our cells to function. However, our cells need to respire to generate energy from glucose.

Glucose is a substance, that is made up of 6-Carbons, 6-Oxygens, and 12-Hydrogens. To easily represent it, we call it C6H12O6.

There are two types of respiration that concern us for now. Those are with and without air.

1. a) The one with the air is called Aerobic Basically, the cells that respire aerobically have a mechanism that breaks Glucose into water (H2O) and a gas called Carbon Dioxide (CO2). You can now understand that water is made up of 2-Hydrogens and 1-Oxygen, while carbon dioxide is made up of 1-Carbon and 2-Oxygens. This process occurs by consumption of air or precisely Oxygen gas (O2) that acquire  21% of the air.

1. b) The one that occurs without air is called Anaerobic The cells that use this method to respire doesn’t use Oxygen gas, but some other substance, to produce energy from glucose along with some by-products.  

 Anaerobic respiration is pretty common in our day to day lives. One of the examples of such an organism is yeast. You didn’t recognize it? You will be surprised to know about it!

Yeast is a single-cell organism, that can be found in many places, even on your skin! However, food-grade yeast is used to prepare various food items. Ever thought how does the bread get its spongy texture? One of the ingredients responsible is yeast, as it produces bubbles of CO2 gas inside the dough.

  Food grade yeast 

 Sour bread with the spongy texture

Yeast produces alcohol as the by-product and is used in a process called fermentation. This process has industrial importance like the production of wine from fruit juice.

You might wonder, how do humans respire aerobically? Is it like a pipeline in our body for the circulation of air? The answer is yes and no.

As you know, the essential content for aerobic respiration is Oxygen gas (O2). Instead of the circulation of air throughout the body, we have blood that carries Oxygen gas to various parts of the body.

However, there are some cells in our body, that can respire anaerobically. Because of the limited supply of oxygen gas, our muscle cells produce energy from glucose anaerobically. The muscle cells instantly produce energy anaerobically creating a by-product called Lactic acid. This by-product is the reason for sore muscles (pain in muscles) after an intense workout like after playing football, or long-running.

When we sleep or rest, the blood gradually carries oxygen to the sore muscles and after aerobic respiration, the muscles become normal. Sometimes, we might need a little massage to improve blood circulation in the sore parts.