Energy

Energy is the ability to do work.  Whatever an organism is going to do, it will take energy to do it.

• Energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed, but every time it changes from one form to another, some is lost as heat.

• Atoms have their own energy of motion.

• Molecules can store energy in the bonds that hold atoms together.

• Cells capitalize on the energy of atoms (diffusion) and have structures that make their own energy molecules.

• Organisms are limited by the amount of energy they can obtain as food.

• Populations in ecosystems are similarly limited by the amount of energy that can be captured.