Coupling Through Emergent Conservation Laws (Part 1)

joint post with Jonathan Lorand, Blake Pollard, and Maru Sarazola

In the cell, chemical reactions are often ‘coupled’ so that reactions that release energy drive reactions that are biologically useful but involve an increase in energy. But how, exactly, does coupling work?

Much is known about this question, but the literature is also full of vague explanations and oversimplifications. Coupling cannot occur in equilibrium; it arises in open systems, where the concentrations of certain chemical...