[Verse 1] In the dark of the dough, little yeast cells wake, No air in the jar, but they don't need to breathe to bake, They grab onto glucose, six carbons round and sweet, Split it clean in half, that's the trick, that's the feat, Out comes the fizz that makes the bread rise high, Out comes the alcohol that makes the barley cry, No oxygen required, this reaction's quiet style, Sugar to spirit and bubbles, mile after mile. [Chorus] C-six H-twelve O-six, that's the sugar in the song, Turns to two spirits and two breaths before too long, Yeast breath, bread breath, bubbles in the glass, Fermentation's the secret note that lets the party pass, No air, no problem, the yeast cell knows the way, Sugar splits to breathe it out and dance till break of day. [Verse 2] Back in eighteen fifty-something, Louis stirred his broth, World thought life sprang from nothing, spontaneous, aloof, He bent his flask like a swan's neck, curved and thin, Dust could knock forever, never find a door to slip within, Broth stayed clear for seasons, proof as plain as day, Only living germs make milk and wine decay, He warmed the bottles gently, chased the trouble out, Pasteurization's named for him — the man who solved the doubt. [Chorus] C-six H-twelve O-six, that's the sugar in the song, Turns to two spirits and two breaths before too long, Yeast breath, bread breath, bubbles in the glass, Fermentation's the secret note that lets the party pass, No air, no problem, the yeast cell knows the way, Sugar splits to breathe it out and dance till break of day. [Verse 3] Now look inside your own warm cells, a furnace burning slow, Oxygen comes rushing in to help the embers glow, Glucose meets the oxygen, this time flipped around, Energy comes pouring out, water hits the ground, Carbon dioxide drifting off on every single sigh, Respiration is the mirror hanging in the sky, What the yeast does blind and buried, your body does with air, Same six carbons, different roads, each reaction has its flair. [Verse 4] Leaves up in the sunlight catch the photons as they fall, Pull the carbon dioxide and the water through the wall, Chlorophyll's the alchemist that stitches them as one, Glucose knits together, powered by the sun, Oxygen's the leftover, the gift it tosses free, That's the breathable blue sky over you and me, Slow reaction, patient, feeding root and feeding bone, Photosynthesis spun the air we call our only home. [Bridge] Breathe in what the forest built, breathe out what feeds the tree, Bread rises, beer ferments, the carbon moves for free, Stable here, unstable there, electrons find their place, Every single reaction's atoms rearranging space. [Outro] Sugar splits, or sugar burns, or sunlight builds it new, Pasteur proved the living make the fermentation true, Breathe it out, breathe it in, the circle never ends, Chemistry's the quiet language that the whole wide world sends.
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