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?
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Oxygen is semi-stable in a diatomic molecule (O2), and so can float around like that all over the place without much fuss. However, oxygen would prefer to be bonded in a different way, like to hydrogen (H2O) or carbon (CO2), which are lower energy states. We use that difference in energy as energy; when O2 converts to H2O or CO2, we steal some of the energy that gets released for our own purposes.
There aren’t many other elements (if any) that are very common, semi-stable, and easily convertible to a more stable, energetically preferable form with other common elements.
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