I'm thankful for adenosine. You should be, too. Adenosine plays some critical roles in our lives. The graphic above shows a molecular model, found in the Wikipedia article on adenosine. (Such use of the graphic is allowed.) The black spheres represent Carbon atoms, the red, Oxygen, the black, Nitrogen, the white, Hydrogen, and the yellow-orange sphere represents Phosphorus. The rods represent covalent bonds. The dotted lines indicate some movement of some of the electrons. Adenosine is also known as adenine monophosphate (AMP). The Phosphorus on the right, with its attached four Oxygens, is a phosphate. The hexagon and pentagon, on the left, are Adenine, a Nitrogen base. The middle part is deoxyribose, a 5-Carbon sugar.
It is pretty well known that DNA uses Nitrogen bases A, C, G and T to make up our hereditary code. The A stands for Adenine. However, A is connected to a 5-Carbon sugar, Deoxyribose, and to a phosphate, in actual DNA. (C, G and T are also so connected.) The actual genetic code is the sequence of AT, TA, CG and GC pairs, in the double helix, but there wouldn't be a double helix without the deoxyribose and the phosphate.
I used a photo of three girls to represent heredity. I'm not sure how they are related, but I think that two of them are identical twins. In any case, even if one of them is a cousin, rather than a sibling, they clearly share some external characteristics. These characteristics are largely determined by the common DNA that they got from their parents. You may not have thought of it, but the heredity-determining ability of DNA is important, even if you don't have any children. The left half of your body gets the same DNA as the right, the top as the bottom, etc. That's important to make us what we are. Besides, all of us have parents, living or dead.
Adenosine has another important function. It is the raw material for ATP, adenosine triphosphate. ATP has two more phosphates attached to it, in addition to the one in adenosine (AMP).
In most automobiles, the energy stored in gasoline is released, a little at a time, in the cylinders. That's a much better way of using the chemical energy of gasoline than causing an explosion in the gas tank would be! In a similar way, energy from food, say a sugar molecule, is captured, temporarily, in several ATP molecules, which can be transported within the cell. (One part of such capturing is glycolysis.) When energy is needed, for example to make a hormone, ATP is turned back into Adenosine/AMP, as the high-energy bonds that held the two additional phosphates are broken. It sounds complicated, and it is, but is works, and it's a good thing it does! So the energy from food is divided into ATPs, and these are used, a little of the energy at a time.
Because adenosine, and other important molecules, have Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen and Phosphorus in them, living things all need such elements. They need other elements, too, especially Sulfur, which is found in proteins.
I'm convinced that God knew about adenosine, and how it would work, and planned for this. I can't prove it, and it can't be disproved, either. Thanks for reading.
