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Part I - Too-Weighty-One
"I am tired of not making the wrestling team. I know I'm a good enough wrestler to do it," thought Connor as he walked to the gym one spring afternoon. "If I could just lose a few pounds, I would be able to make a lower weight class, and with my skills I would succeed!
"But how?" he wondered. Maybe his friends could help.
Over dinner in the dining hall, Connor asked his friends at the table if they had any suggestions for a quick way to lose weight.
"Well," said Becky, "I read about this stuff called 281 (pronounced "too-weighty-one") that they used to take in the 1930s before there were all these regulations on drugs. People lost weight quickly and easily, and the effects lasted as long as they took it."
"Is it still available?" asked Connor.
"Yeah, I saw an ad for it online. The website said it works great, but you have to be careful with dosage."
That night in his dorm Connor went online and found lots of websites offering to sell this diet pill, now called DNP. According to the information, DNP had helped several people lose weight. Some of the side effects included a fever, cataracts, and rashes. There were even some reports of deaths. DNP was said to be a "mitochondrial uncoupler."
"What's that?" Connor wondered.
Question 1: What do you know about mitochondria?Why might disrupting mitochondrial function be a bad idea?