How Living Things Work
Like Duolingo, but for How Living Things Work. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
For the part of you with thirty open tabs that never became anything.
A short one: 12 levels across 2 sections, about 24 minutes end to end, roughly 5 days at five minutes a day. It moves through How Bodies Stay Running and How Life Carries Forward. It starts from scratch.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in How Living Things Work
- A living cell maintains a chemical balance vastly different from the liquid around it
- Passive drifting toward chaos is natural; keeping order requires constant work
- Without continuous energy, molecular order breaks down and the cell reaches equilibrium with the outside, dying
- The cell membrane is made of a double layer of fats (lipids)
- Because oil and water do not mix, the oily middle acts like a waterproof barrier
- Specific helper channels or pumps are needed to let water-soluble nutrients in and wastes out
- Cells run destructive chemical reactions (like digestion) that would dissolve vital structures if uncontained
- Membrane-bound internal compartments create distinct micro-environments with their own acidity and enzyme sets
- Compartmentalization allows constructive and destructive tasks to run simultaneously
- Receptor proteins sit across the outer membrane with one end facing out and one facing in
- A signaling molecule fits onto the outer surface like a key in a lock, changing the receptor's shape
- The shape change on the inside triggers a cascade of internal actions while keeping the outside fluid out
- Homeostasis does not mean staying frozen at one exact number; it means constantly correcting deviations
- When body temperature rises, sweating cools it back down; when it drops, shivering generates heat
- When water levels drop, the kidneys hold onto fluid to prevent dehydration
- ATP acts like a rechargeable battery holding three phosphate groups
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives How Living Things Work the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
Why does your body have to work nonstop just to keep your cells organized?
Get it right to open this lesson and 11 more in the app.
Where How Living Things Work takes you
Explore the clever engineering behind all life on Earth. Learn how cells build order, how food turns into movement, and how nature edits its own recipes across generations.
- 1
How Bodies Stay Running
- How Cells Keep Order
- Tracing Energy from Sunlight to Movement
- 2
How Life Carries Forward
- Reading the Genetic Blueprint
- Seeing Natural Selection at Work
2 sections · 4 units · 12 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
You pick the voice
How Living Things Work is taught in the The Bestie style: your friend who just gets it. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Start How Living Things Work today.
Download Tomo, search How Living Things Work, and play your first lesson in under a minute.