Tom the Dancing Bug by Ruben Bolling for June 11, 2010

Transcript:

Tom the Dancing Bug by Ruben Bolling Billy Dare Boy Adventurer with Quentin in SMUGGLERS' CAPE Ch. VILVI: The Absolutely Full Story Billy lunges to grab one of the broken chair legs! Billy: Must...get...weapon! Muscles flex, heartbeat accelerates, pupils dilate... Just then, a bacterium is born in his large intestine! Oblivious to the danger facing its host organism, the bacteroide commences a quest for nutrients! Its search becomes urgent as seconds pass, and its brief lifespan is threatened! Suddenly, out of the darkness, a single glycan-rich food particle drifts toward the bacteroide! Wasting no time, the single-celled organism feasts on the nutrient! Carbohydrate fermentation results in the production of volatile fatty acids that float toward Billy's intestinal wall! Absorbed into Billy's large intestine, the fatty acid molecules are broken down into triglycerides! Will the energy released by these triglycerides be sufficient to tip the balance in Billy Dare's deadly battle against Zoran Marconi? No! But...just then, Billy's thyroid gland releases a stream of triiodothyronine! NEXT Enter: the thyroxine-binding globulins!!