the cell's oldest hustle: break sugar, skip the paperwork, keep two pennies of profit.
means a ten-step chemical pathway that splits one glucose molecule into two pyruvate molecules, netting a small usable amount of energy without needing oxygen.
from from greek glykys (sweet) and lysis (loosening or breaking) - coined in the early 1900s as biochemists mapped how yeast and muscle cells ferment sugar, building on louis pasteur's fermentation work and otto meyerhof's later studies on muscle metabolism.
cancer cells — warburg effect: tumors favor glycolysis even with oxygen present
sprinting muscle — fast-twitch fibers lean on it for quick, oxygen-free bursts
red blood cells — lack mitochondria entirely, rely on glycolysis for all energy
wine fermentation — yeast run glycolysis then ferment pyruvate into ethanol