Where does the energy that life uses to combat entropy ultimately come from?

both anaerobic and aerobic respiration use glucose (or other carbohydrates), proteins and lipids to produce atp and nadh. cell uses those energy molecules, obtained from food and   breaks them down during the chemical reactions of respiration. in anaerobic respiration, nadh is regenerated to nad+ by enzymes lactate dehydrogenase (lactate is produced, e.g. in muscle cells) or by alcohol dehydrogenase where ethanol is produced (alcohol fermentation), while in aerobic respiration, electrons from nadh are deposited in the mitochondria to regenerate nad+ (electron transport chain. anaerobic respiration produces 2 atp per molecule of glucose compared to aerobic respiration where about 38 atp molecules are produced.

enzyme active site and substrate specificity

enzymes bind with chemical reactants called substrates. there may be one or more substrates for each type of enzyme, depending on the particular chemical reaction. in some reactions, a single-reactant substrate is broken down into multiple products