However, in the form of N2, nitrogen is unusable by all organisms except for a few primitive bacteria that are capable of converting N2 gas to ammonia (NH3). This process of conversion is called nitrogen fixation, and makes the nitrogen available for use by organisms.
1 Simple carbohydrates are often used as building blocks of larger, complex carbohydrates. 2  The empirical structure of simple carbohydrate is C 6 H 12 O 6 or (CH 2 O) 6 while that of complex carbohydrate is (C 6 H 10 O 5) n, in which ânâ is the number of monomer units.
Carbohydrates are classified into mono, di, tri, poly and heterosaccharides. The smallest carbohydrates are monosaccharides such as glucose whereas polysaccharides such as starch, cellulose and glycogen can be large and even indeterminate in length. The energy produced by carbohydrates is 4 calories per gram. Proteins also provide 4 calories per gram.