This screenshot is an attack made by chemists with the intent to cause aneurysms on unsuspecting biologists.
Oxygen
Submitted 1 day ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/368b0ded-2502-4700-919b-f661b163e4f9.jpeg
Comments
Dave2@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 day ago
Donjuanme@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Thank you mitochondria for allowing us to respirate the death element.
dditty@lemm.ee 1 day ago
Truly the powerhouse of the death breathers
Donjuanme@lemmy.world 1 day ago
We are all the death breathers, my fungi, my bees, we’re powered with the miti-c
celsiustimeline@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
Cell respiration and oxidation involves exactly zero forms of combustion.
WolfLink@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
Cellular respiration is sugar + oxygen -> water + CO2
Combustion reactions are often characterized as anything that is something + oxygen -> water + optionally something else.
celsiustimeline@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
You’re correct. It does meet the definition of combustion. I misspoke. The post claims that cells are being set on fire. That claim is categorically untrue.
DogWater@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
Oxygen is so crazy that once microbiology in the ancient oceans started producing it, all life on earth nearly died. Like very nearly sterilized the earth.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 20 hours ago
At high concentrations, its still fucking awful for us. Easy to forget that the atmosphere is still only 21% Oxygen and 78% Nitrogen. Even setting aside the risks of fire and explosion at higher concentrations, this highly reactive substance degrades the nervous and musculature system.
You wouldn’t want to be in a fully oxygenated environment for the same reason you wouldn’t want to drive your car through a lake of gasoline.
Zink@programming.dev 1 day ago
Powerful oxidizers are dangerous stuff!
One I’ve learned about recently (and used) is potassium permanganate. One of its uses is for improving water quality in fish ponds. It oxidizes basically all organic matter. It can simultaneously knock out algae, bacteria, parasites, hormones, and other excess organic waste. And the pathogens it kills can’t build up resistance to it like they would an antibiotic or poison, so it can be used preventively without creating stronger bugs. You can’t really build resistance to BURNING outside video games.
But that also means that if you add too much, you can just as easily sterilize all life in a body of water, including fish and anything else you want to keep.
AND it means you need to be careful when handling it. If you burn your eyes or your lungs, it makes them stop working!
Fosheze@lemmy.world 1 day ago
If you burn your eyes or your lungs, it makes them stop working!
Top tip right here.
Iron_Lynx@lemmy.world 1 day ago
It feels like a loading screen tip, and I’m scraping my head as to for what kind of game it would be the tip.
Zink@programming.dev 1 day ago
The more you know! 💫
SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de 1 day ago
We’re also reliant on water and are mostly made out of it. water is such a “universal solvent”, it’s quite OP. It dissolves so much, that we don’t even think about it
We’re death breathers, but also basically have acid blood like xenomorphs
roguetrick@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Aliens would need an oxidizer to metabolize as well, even if that oxidizer isn’t oxygen. If they want to actually efficiently get energy out of things, it’ll need to be a strong one. Even fermentation is a oxidation-reduction reaction that just doesn’t use oxygen.
TachyonTele@lemm.ee 19 hours ago
If we ever found a species that was made of alcohol we would absolutely dominate, err domestic them as quickly as possible.
bluemellophone@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Everybody in this thread needs to read Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir.
SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de 1 day ago
And also go in without knowing anything about it
milicent_bystandr@lemm.ee 10 hours ago
Yes! No spoilers!
It doesn’t matter for some books.
It’s well worth it for this.
JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
That’s what I did. Right after reading Artemis. PHM is way better.
guysoft@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
Came here for this comment. Also the great oxidation event.
sicarius@lemmy.world 17 hours ago
I’d add that the audiobook is amazing also.
NounsAndWords@lemmy.world 1 day ago
So you’re telling me if I stop breathing I’ll never get older? I’m in!
Jumi@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Reading I start to miss r/HFY again
MossyFeathers@pawb.social 1 day ago
Humans being the goofy, weird, but kind-hearted cro-magnons of the galaxy/universe is one of my favorite tropes.
Jumi@lemmy.world 1 day ago
That sounds great, thank you!
Tugboater203@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Yeah, if one is so inclined,the Jenkinsverse is well worth the read.
AhismaMiasma@lemm.ee 1 day ago
Me too :(
Is there an active one on the fediverse? Id contribute but I can barely write my name.
Jumi@lemmy.world 1 day ago
There’s seems to be one but it’s still a bit empty
H4CK3RN4M3D4N63R570RM@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
This reminds me of an excellent short story over on r/writingprompts. It’s about how humans evolved in the harshest conditions as a forgotten experiment. They emerge and are basically gods.
MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
Wait, this is not in hfy?
smeg@feddit.uk 1 day ago
That was a good read!
lath@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Explains why we tend to spontaneously combust at times
ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Death breathers are made of electric thinking meat. Life is fucking rad.
codapine@lemm.ee 16 hours ago
Reminds me of the short story podcast ‘The Truth’ episode - “They’re Made out of Meat”. In fact I think it may have been a short story I once read online beforehand, that they may just have dramatized. (?)
glitchdx@lemmy.world 1 day ago
does lemmy have an equivalent to/r/hfy ? This has big /r/hfy energy.
Spacehooks@reddthat.com 22 hours ago
New loyalist chapter name
Barx@hexbear.net 1 day ago
If aliens exist they would probably have many things just as strange. They would also need a way to harvest energy via some cycle. It is possible they would require even more reactive substances to live.
MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
Since oxygen is quite reactive.
RagingHungryPanda@lemm.ee 1 day ago
In Becky Chambers’ Wayfarer series, there is a species who actually breathes methane. The focus though is less on how that actually happens and more on how they navigate as the only species for whom oxygen is toxic. It’s a great series, btw. It’s a not-quite-as-optimistic as star trek future, but still optimistic and with a vast range of species who are all intermingling as learning how to get along.
BeneGesseritWitch@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
Added this to my reading list, looks good. Thanks!
Paradachshund@lemmy.today 1 day ago
So if this is true, why do we need it to live?
zaph@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
Same reason an alcoholic needs alcohol to keep from shaking, you’re addicted. Go ahead, try to stop. You’ll shake just like they do.
vithigar@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
The short version is that life needs something that’s at least a little unstable in order to extract chemical energy from things.
The post is correct when viewed in a particular light, on a technicality, if you squint. By that same technicality iron rusting is also burning very slowly. They’re ignoring the rapidity which is implied by “burning”. But yes, oxygen is unstable, oxygen helps burn things, and oxygen is toxic if you get too much at once. Though you’d need to be breathing pure oxygen pressurized to about 1.4 atmospheres, or regular air pressurized to about 7 atmospheres, for that last one to happen. It’s a legitimate concern for deep SCUBA divers.
But why does life need instability? Chemical instability is, in basic terms, just stored chemical energy, and that energy wants to be released. The more reactive something is the easier it is to get energy from reactions involving it. There’s a balancing act here where more reactive means easier energy, but also more dangerous. Oxygen is in a kind of sweet spot where it’s stable enough that it’s not generally going to explode or catch fire on its own, but can be coaxed into doing those things in controlled ways with other chemicals to extract energy when needed.
Paradachshund@lemmy.today 20 hours ago
Nice explanation , thank you.
SparrowRanjitScaur@lemmy.world 1 day ago
There are anaerobic bacteria that don’t need oxygen to survive. That was the norm before The Great Oxidation Event when cyanobacteria started releasing oxygen during photosynthesis. Prior to that there was very little oxygen in the atmosphere, and anaerobic bacteria ruled the world.
After the GOE the high concentration of oxygen killed off most of the anaerobic bacteria, and what was left were organisms that made a blood truce with oxygen. Aerobic organisms gained incredible power from utilizing oxygen for metabolism, but in turn the oxygen kills them eventually.
ICastFist@programming.dev 1 day ago
So it’s theoretically possible that some of those anaerobic bacteria survived for 4 billion years and are plotting revenge against us right now?
Paradachshund@lemmy.today 1 day ago
Wow, I know so little about this topic and I’m learning all kinds of cool things. Thanks for the comment. I’d never thought about aerobic being the opposite of anaerobic before either.
MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
There were even some found in uran mine pockets, that live off radiation.
propter_hog@hexbear.net 1 day ago
Because wen evolved on the Death Planet, and life, uh, finds a way
azi@mander.xyz 1 day ago
Organisms need some oxidizing agent to respire. We use oxygen because it’s very highly reactive and thanks to photosynthesis is goddamn everywhere.
Paradachshund@lemmy.today 1 day ago
Can you explain that first part in more detail? I really know nothing about this and I’m curious to hear more.
MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
Some use radiation tho.
sciencealert.com/bacterium-lives-off-nuclear-ener…
And maybe related en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiotrophic_fungus
celsiustimeline@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
It’s not true. It’s sophomore high school biology students making memes about things they only have a cursory understanding of.
AOCapitulator@hexbear.net 1 day ago
talking out my ass, I’m guessing its because oxygen is an energetic and highly reactive element, and therefore it can do lots of things and it does them really well, or in general was just the best most direct means to accomplish the energy intensive tasks that were required given the biosphere we evolved in?
callyral@pawb.social 1 day ago
Because our atmosphere is full of oxygen and nitrogen. Oxygen happened to be the chosen option for some reason, probably because nitrogen might not be reactive enough, idk I’m not a biologist or a chemist forget what i said
Remotedeck@discuss.tchncs.de 1 day ago
I’m just going to ask because I think this is true but I’m not certain and nobody’s talking about it. Antioxidants are BS right?
Kowowow@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
I wonder if you could something like a magnesium atomosphere where if a human it got a hole in their suit it would cause them to burst into flames as the outside pressure forced it’s way in then reacted with the oxygen and water in our suit and body
pancake@lemmygrad.ml 1 day ago
Chemical damage to our bodies mostly consists of both oxidation and Maillard-like reactions. So we’re both slowly burning and getting cooked!
Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Rusting your insides
morrowind@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.world 1 day ago
They say a planet like earth I’d very rare. Rarer still to find life on one. I believe life is as abundant in the universe as it is here. Which means to me, in our neck of the universe we are an oddity.
qaopjlll@hexbear.net 1 day ago
I guess this is why rich ghouls and professional athletes are into cryotherapy for anti-aging. Like that weird billionaire who also stole blood from his son. What’s the consensus on that, is it a grift or do serious scientists think you can really extend your life by regularly locking yourself in a cold chamber or dunking yourself in an ice bath for a few minutes every day?
Draegur@lemm.ee 1 day ago
Sol 3 is a Class-14 Deathworld on what used to be a thirteen-point scale until they found it.
Not only is the planet very geothermally volatile with active volcanic systems AND feature violent and chaotic weather systems…
“Earth” is the deepest gravity well they’ve ever witnessed chemical rocketry successfully achieve orbit from.
The biosphere is teeming with pathogens, so much so that the sapient population’s own bodies rely on symbiotic microbial colonies in order to digest nutrients among other tasks.
And the macroscopic fauna are ALMOST as scary as the microscopic stuff: every biome packed with highly adapted predators.
At the top of this complex carnal carnival of carnivory, the “humans” who live there are unstoppable pursuit and persistence predators highly naturally gifted in ranged combat that historically used to just WALK their prey to death. The animals which ancient humans consumed could sprint to temporary safety, but humans will catch up, ALWAYS catch up, and the prey will still be tired when they have to sprint again. Eventually the fatigue outpaces them, and humans catch up for the last time. Just walk right up and bash them with a rock, they might not even have to throw it: dinner is ready!
Furthermore, it’s not just the highly volatile oxygen that all the animals there breathe… Sol 3’s atmosphere also even contains a constant background presence of radon. The biosphere is passively resistant to some levels of radiation. One of the cities was consumed in the fallout cloud of an exploding nuclear fission reactor(they STILL use water to cool their municipal fission reactors even now!), and although the humans fled, the animals that stayed there are FLOURISHING. Deformed and mutated, but thriving.
WE DO NOT GO TO SOL 3.
Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Sol 3:
HarmlessMostly harmlessfoofiepie@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
Beautiful.
eodur@lemmy.world 1 day ago
More of this please
chaogomu@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Over on reddit there’s an entire genre of this sort of fiction in /r/hfy
TachyonTele@lemm.ee 19 hours ago
The entire ecosystem is also part plastic.
shalafi@lemmy.world 1 day ago
deathworlders.com/…/chapter-00-kevin-jenkins-expe…
absGeekNZ@lemmy.nz 19 hours ago
In one of their multitude of inter-nation conflicts; two cities were consumed in nuclear fire. On any sane world; these areas would be abandoned and the area around them a quarantine zone; the humans obviously not being fully sane, rebuilt and flourish.
This is related to the fact that humans along with most of the inhabitants of Sol3, are highly resilient to damage; of all kinds.
Humans reproduce slowly; but even though they generally reproduce not far above replacement rate, their resilience means their population still grows at an exponential rate. And on top of that; their advances in medical technology are on the verge of massive life extension. Soon they will have to move out into space; the galaxy better get ready for them.
bamfic@lemmy.world 1 day ago
youtube.com/watch?v=T6JFTmQCFHg