I’ve noticed that most of, if not all living things rely on oxygen in one way or another to breath, live. We humans need oxygen so then is carried to our bloodstream to oxygenate our internals, same with a fish for example where the oxygen is obtained from the water. But why oxygen? Why live couldn’t have happen with other elements like hydrogen for example? Why oxygen is any life’s fuel in our universe?
In: 1
Oxygen is crazy. It is a very destructive atom that will wreck molecules with abandon.
Why? Because it is electronegative. This means that it wants to hog electrons. When a single oxygen meets a protein or DNA or almost anything, oxygen gives it a wedgie and steals an electron (usually it does this by bonding to the thing it reacts with).
Billions of years ago, there was almost no pure oxygen molecules around. At some point, an enterprising algae figured out how to get carbon off of CO2 and poop out oxygen as waste. This was cool fit that algae, but poisoned the atmosphere with oxygen and killed like 95% of all life on earth. Eventually, new life just had to figure out how to deal with it.
So, oxygen really messes stuff up…but we need it. Why? Precisely because of how powerful it is. If you know how to use oxygen’s reactivity you can power lots of cellular functions with it. That’s what happens in the electron transport chain in the mitochondria.
Latest Answers