Your first sentence is wrong (the mitochondria’s primary function is to generate ATP, which then gets transported to elsewhere where its stored energy is used). And your second sentence is confusing. With “broken ATP” you mean ADP? Or broken ATP synthesis? The point of this alternative oxidase pathway is producing some ATP, but inefficiently. And it produces also heat, because of its inefficiency (not all the energy stored in the sugars can be turned into chemically stored energy so it also produces heat energy. Think traditional light bulb). This heat is then used in the inflorescences of some aroids.

Ich ernähre mich seit über nem Jahrzehnt vegan und koche ziemlich viel, vor allem mit unverarbeiteten Produkten und so. Was mir die Zeit gezeigt hat, ist dass es noch auf viel mehr ankommt. Durch die Umstellung von primär Testosteron auf primär Östrogen in meinem Körper haben sich mein Gewicht, die Gewichtsverteilung, Muskelmasse und vieles mehr drastisch verändert. Alter und Sport haben da sicherlich auch ne Rolle gespielt. Durch Antidepressiva ist dann noch mal ein drastischer Wechsel gekommen und ich hab einfach 20kg in einem Jahr zugenommen, ohne was an meinem Lebensstil zu ändern.

Mein Punkt ist: Du hast zwar gute Punkte genannt, auf die Menschen auf jeden Fall acht geben sollten. Aber es ist noch viel komplexer als das und sehr unterschiedlich von Person zu Person bzw sogar innerhalb einer Person zu verschiedenen Zeiten.

Isn’t this just the normal functions of mitochondria in organisms irrespective of kingdom? They burn sugars (in aerobic respiration using oxygen) to produce ATP. ATP can then be used elsewhere in the body as an energy reserve. Animals do it and plants do it. The difference here might rather be that they don’t convert the sugars into ATP but rather use the thermic energy of the reaction to produce heat instead of ATP?

ETA: unfortunately, searching for “Alternative Oxidase Metabolic Pathway” only leads to this very short Wikipedia article and a whole bunch of hard to understand scientific papers. But seems to be an alternative pathway found in various different organisms for various reasons.

Well, the child is three years old and certainly has no concept of gender/sex. So how and why is someone apparently assigning gender and sex to this child? Why not just keep it neutral? Especially in context of forced gender and sex assignations as well as intersex child mutilations. Shouldn’t we be much more careful in this context not to force our biases and weird ideas of gender/sex onto children?!

Interesting how they call this child a “boy” if the karyotype and genitalia are so ambiguous. Like, why???

This got me interested too and apparently aroids as a family are specialized on doing this.

https://www.indefenseofplants.com/blog/2018/6/5/how-aroids-turn-up-the-heat

In lieu of their normal metabolic pathway, which ends in the production of ATP, the mitochondria switch over to a pathway called the “Alternative Oxidase Metabolic Pathway.” When this happens, the mitochondria start burning sugars using oxygen as a fuel source. This form of respiration produces heat.

Nonetheless, some aroids can maintain this costly level of respiration intermittently for weeks on end. Take the charismatic skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) for example. Its spadix can reach temperatures of upwards of 45 °F (7 °C) on and and off for as long as two weeks. Even more incredible, the plant is able to do this despite freezing ambient temperatures, literally melting its way through layers of snow.

For some aroids, however, carbohydrates just don’t cut it. Species like the Brazilian Philodendron bipinnatifidum produce a staggering amount of floral heat and to do so requires a different fuel source - fat.

For about 20 to 40 minutes, the inflorescence of P. bipinnatifidum reaches temperatures as high as 95 °F (35 °C) with one record breaker maxing out at 115 °F (46 °C)!

Incredible!!