Citric acid cycle Memes

The classic biology student transformation! Starting with starry-eyed enthusiasm about "God's creation" and cute animals, then BAM—first semester hits with the Krebs cycle and suddenly you're a hollow-eyed biochemical husk singing metabolic pathways to remember them. Nothing destroys your innocent love of nature quite like memorizing that acetyl-CoA enters a tortuous eight-step cycle producing a grand total of... wait, was it 2 ATP? Or 3? *internal screaming intensifies*

That moment during the exam when you're desperately trying to remember if it's pyruvate or oxaloacetate that comes after isocitrate, and your neurons are firing blanks. The Krebs cycle doesn't care about your GPA—it's been running for billions of years without your permission. Meanwhile, ATP production in your brain has clearly stalled somewhere between "I studied this" and "was that even in the textbook?"

Nothing brings bitter rivals together quite like memorizing the citric acid cycle. Four scientific disciplines—normally fighting for lab space, funding, and recognition—suddenly find common ground in their shared trauma. That diagram at the bottom? It's the biochemical equivalent of a horror movie that all biology students are forced to watch. The Krebs cycle doesn't care what department you're from; it's coming for you with its endless cascade of enzymes and intermediates. Every scientist remembers that moment when pyruvate dehydrogenase broke their spirit.