If All That Is Required to Drive a Chemical Reaction

Multiple Choice

If all that is required to drive a chemical reaction is heat, why can't we speed up biological chemical reactions by heating the cell?

A) High energy costs are prohibitive for the whole cell.
B) Excess heat would indiscriminately speed up all chemical reactions, including desirable and undesirable reactions, as well as denature the biological catalysts (enzymes) involved.
C) Organisms that have self-regulated body temperature, such as mammals, already heat their chemical reactions and do not need external heat sources.
D) Excess heat would slow down the rate of product formation for many chemical reactions.
E) Evenly heating the entire cell is technically difficult, mainly because of high concentrations of hydrophobic molecules in the phospholipid bilayer.