Eli5: What’s so special with oxygen that every living being users it and not other gas?
In: Biology
It’s very common on our planet’s surface and it reacts very strongly.
The electrons of the atoms are arranged so that it really wants to take more electrons.
It’s really common because some early life spat it out as a byproduct of making food. Which was a problem for them since it was also poisonous to them. This was 2.4 billion years ago, and is called the Oxygen Catastrophe and it nearly wiped out all life.
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