This question is for all you biochemists out there. Wikipedia has info but it's much above my level of comprehension, I'm looking for an answer in laymen's terms.
My magic system is very science-based and there are different "kinds" of magic/energy based on what the energy actually is. Examples include electromagnetic radiation, the strong and weak nuclear forces, (potential) chemical energy in hydrocarbons and, the subject of this question, ATP, which is "life force"/qi/whatever you want to call it. Specifically the energy/magic of a living thing is the energy created when ATP loses a phosphate and turns into ADP (which makes the cells do the thing), so certain characters can "look for"/"follow" this energy in themselves and in other living beings.
At the moment of death (which I'll define as "when the heart ceases to beat") you stop breathing, so you are no longer getting oxygen. I know you can make ATP anaerobically (though it's much less efficient and there's some nasty waste products, which isn't really an issue if you're dead), so you'll automatically switch over to that once the oxygen is used up, but you'll run out of glucose at some point, too. How long will that take? A few seconds? A few minutes? A few hours?
So now that you're not making anymore ATP...what happens to the stuff that's in you? Does it get spent during normal cellular processes since they haven't gotten the memo that you've died? How long does that take? Or does it just hang around and break down (denatured?) as everything else begins to decay? I imagine that's a pretty slow, gradual process, right?
Also is there anything else that I should know that I haven't thought of or just don't realize I don't know?
My magic system is very science-based and there are different "kinds" of magic/energy based on what the energy actually is. Examples include electromagnetic radiation, the strong and weak nuclear forces, (potential) chemical energy in hydrocarbons and, the subject of this question, ATP, which is "life force"/qi/whatever you want to call it. Specifically the energy/magic of a living thing is the energy created when ATP loses a phosphate and turns into ADP (which makes the cells do the thing), so certain characters can "look for"/"follow" this energy in themselves and in other living beings.
At the moment of death (which I'll define as "when the heart ceases to beat") you stop breathing, so you are no longer getting oxygen. I know you can make ATP anaerobically (though it's much less efficient and there's some nasty waste products, which isn't really an issue if you're dead), so you'll automatically switch over to that once the oxygen is used up, but you'll run out of glucose at some point, too. How long will that take? A few seconds? A few minutes? A few hours?
So now that you're not making anymore ATP...what happens to the stuff that's in you? Does it get spent during normal cellular processes since they haven't gotten the memo that you've died? How long does that take? Or does it just hang around and break down (denatured?) as everything else begins to decay? I imagine that's a pretty slow, gradual process, right?
Also is there anything else that I should know that I haven't thought of or just don't realize I don't know?