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I proposed some exotic biochemistry on the Worldbuilding stack. https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/166814/digestive-system-of-the-ultimate-omnivore/166829#166829

Your creature oxidizes molecules in its "stomach" which is more of a furnace. Anything that can be oxidized is fair game - any reduced carbon, or nitrogen, or metal salt. Oxidation produces heat. The amount of heat produced is controlled by controlling oxygen ingress to the stomach.

Under hot conditions, certain metalloproteins change configuration. The circulation brings these proteins into hot conditions near the stomach and they capture heat energy with the configuration change. When the hot-configured metalloprotein circulates out to the cold exterior (possibly radiator plates or fins) it shifts back to the cold configuration. This conformational shift is linked to an ATPase and generates ATP for the creature to use for its muscles and metabolic processes, as Earth life does.

I was challenged to produce a molecule which could capture and release energy in this way. Molecules do this all the time with a phase change - that is a steam engine. But is there any example of a molecule (or a whole type, perhaps) which undergoes a conformational change with heat that it later discharges in a controlled manner, with an exothermic relaxation back to the cold conformation. Not necessarily a biomolecule.

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    $\begingroup$ Thing is, they do it all the time! Every single compound with a conformer higher in energy would count. $\endgroup$
    – Mithoron
    Commented Jan 29, 2020 at 0:50
  • $\begingroup$ @Mithoron - that sounds promising. Can you lay out some examples in an answer? $\endgroup$
    – Willk
    Commented Jan 29, 2020 at 0:54
  • $\begingroup$ No, that means, the topic is too broad and question probably on the way to get closed. $\endgroup$
    – Mithoron
    Commented Jan 29, 2020 at 16:55
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    $\begingroup$ :D Well, to be actually able to give off energy surplus to ATPase, the molecule should actually do not lose it - stay in "excited" conformation and only get isomerised by an enzyme and get its energy harvested. Now, that's not really common, and may be just rare enough! $\endgroup$
    – Mithoron
    Commented Jan 29, 2020 at 22:17
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    $\begingroup$ Microscopic reversibility of the endothermic reaction makes it really hard to prevent the reverse happening without the ATP synthesis. What about using a known ion-driven ATP synthase with a molecule that binds ions when cold and releases them when hot to maintain the ion gradient? $\endgroup$
    – Andrew
    Commented Jan 30, 2020 at 22:36

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