Electron Transport Chain — Redox Ladder & Proton-Motive Force (2D)

This 2D companion strips the mitochondrial electron transport chain down to two linked diagrams: a classic redox-potential energy ladder, where electron pairs visibly fall from a low, energy-rich potential at NADH toward a high, energy-poor one at oxygen; and a two-compartment proton-motive-force circuit, where every proton actually pumped at Complexes I, III and IV charges a leaky membrane capacitor whose voltage drives an ATP synthase rotor. Unlike a flattened camera view of a 3D scene, both panels are native 2D representations — an energy-level diagram and a lumped electrochemical circuit — computed from the same standard reduction potentials and ΔG°′ = −nFΔE°′ thermodynamics as the 3D model, but exposing quantities (the proton-motive force itself, and the synthase turnover it sustains) that the 3D scene never calculates. Choose the electron entry point, apply an inhibitor and watch both the ladder and the gradient respond together.