The Power Station in Your Cell

[KID] I rode my bike to the corner store, I yawned, I laughed, I shut the door.

[NARRATOR] Meanwhile, under the skin, a factory I never built is running shifts I never see, cranking out the fuel of me.

Every step I took today, a quintillion turbines spun. Every breath I took today was oxygen for a furnace.

[ALL] The power station in your cell, the power station in your cell — a thousand little engines you will never have to thank.

The power station in your cell, the power station in your cell — mitochondria, mitochondria, the night shift of your blood.

[NARRATOR] You have a hundred trillion cells, and almost every single one has hundreds of these things — and they all came with you free.

They have their own DNA. Two billion years ago a bacterium got swallowed, and it stayed for good.

[ALL] The power station in your cell, the power station in your cell — you give them food, they give you breath.

Mito-CHON-dri-a, Mito-CHON-dri-a — ATP, ATP, the currency of being alive.

[ALL] Power station in the cell, power station in the cell — a factory in the dark, cheering for you anyway.