Alexander Hursey, age 9, of Asheville, for his question:

How do our bodies get energy?

Your body uses up energy when you run, walk, skip or even sneeze. More energy is needed to keep the blood flowing, to breathe and digest food. Energy is used up even while you sleep. Of course, the body gets all that energy from food. But originally it all came from the sun. Every time you lift a finger, you use up energy which was once poured forth from the sun,

The process from the sun to body energy is long and complex, Lets begin by tracing back the origin of our food. All of it comes originally from plants. Vegetables, salads, cereals and puddings come directly from plants. Meat comes from animals who feed on plants.

So all our food comes originally from the plant kingdom. And plants manufacture their own food from air, water, sunlight and chemicals in the soil, And all of this goes back to that old sunlight recipep photosynthesis, which is carried on by the magic chlorophyll of green leaves, Sunlight is necessary to bake this recipe. Its energy is used to bind six particles of carbon dioxide and six particles of water into one particle of glucose sugar. Six particles of oxygen are left over. and returned to the air,

With the help of chemical ingredients from the soil, the plant converts this simple sugar into varieties of protein, fat and carbohydrate foods. These are the basic foods finally passed along to us. And the original little molecules of glucose are still bound together with the energy from sunlight.

Our body digests the countless things we eat and breaks them down into these three basic food stuffs ‑ proteins, fats and carbohydrates. Most of the protein is used for repair work and body building. Fats are stored for future use as energy and carbohydrates provide fuel for quick energy. But even protein can be converted into energy fuel when necessary,

The fuel is used in a slow burning process, more gentle than fire and without the smoke and flame. But like a fire, this process needs oxygen. Particles of oxygen in the blood stream are toted to the tiny cells of cells of the body. ii particle of oxygen attacks a particle of fat or carbohydrate, This is oxidation and it causes a breakdown. The original molecule made by a plant falls apart and the particles that made it go their separate ways.

Also freed is the energy which bound these particles together. This came, of course, from sunlight and the sunlight came originally from the sun. When freed by slow oxidation, this energy can be used by the body to do its various chores. It is a long, long way from the blazing atomic furnace of our sun to the energy of our bodies. And the process goes in complicated stages, But every time you blink your eyes you are using up a bit of energy carried to earth by a sunbeam.