Freeway System Analogy - Essay Example

The assumption is that, if a person has a severe disease like PKU, there would have to be some alteration in some of the chemicals handled in the body. All of the body's chemical courses precede, a particular metabolic pathway or route.

A Los Angeles freeway system analogy could be applicable in this case. If an accident occurs in Anaheim, traffic may flock in downtown Los Angeles. After a while, substitute roads begin to become operational and the traffic starts to move again but at a slower pace. If the number of cars taking different alternate routes was measured, it would be possible to pinpoint precisely where the accident occurred. By use of this analogy, the chemicals eaten as food are the traffic and proceed along marked major highways known as metabolic pathways until an accident ensues. The accident could be an infectious disease, a mutation, or even a vitamin deficiency. Consequently, after the accident, the traffic courses of molecules are averted onto the slow alternate routes as a substitute for the twelve-lane superhighway. The individual with the slow flow of molecules is alive, however, may not be as operational as individuals who has all the metabolic highways are open. The bottleneck with using this highway analogy is that; supposing certain freeways were not even registered on the highway map since the people who amassed them were not from town and did not know about them. Overall, analogies are effective strategies for communicating complex materials and concepts and a person with little knowledge of the functionality will easily understand them.