These 10 animal facts will amaze you. The face of farming and agriculture has changed drastically over the past 100 years. At the beginning of the 20th century, over 70% of the population of the United States lived and worked on farms, but by 2008, the figure had dropped to less that 3%.
During this process, glucose from food is broken down into carbon dioxide and water, and energy is released. The process of releasing energy from food is called respiration, or cellular respiration as it is a series of steps that take place within living cells. It is important to not confuse respiration, or oxidizing glucose, with breathing.
In glycolysis, glucose (a six carbon sugar) is split into two molecules of the three-carbon sugar pyruvate. This multi-step process yields two molecules of ATP (free energy containing molecule), two molecules of pyruvate, and two high energy electron carrying molecules of NADH. Glycolysis can occur with or without oxygen. In the presence of oxygen, glycolysis is the first stage of cellular respiration. In the abscence of oxygen, glycolysis allows cells to make small amounts of ATP through the process of fermentation. Glycolysis takes place in the cytosol of the cell's cytoplasm. However, the next stage of cellular respiration known as the citric acid cycle, occurs in the matrix of cell mitochondria. Below are the 10 steps of glycolysis: Step 1