So, I recently watched a video regarding the first synthesized fertilizer, and I thought it was pretty interesting that farmland was basically screwed if they didn’t figure out how to get more nitrogen into dirt.
But then I thought about it, I was taught that plants make the bulk of themselves out of carbon, which they absorb from the air in carbon dioxide. Why is the same not true with nitrogen? Our atmosphere is a little more than 2/3rds nitrogen after all.
I tried looking it up, but the result was basically “Because nitrogen in the atmosphere is in a gaseous form” but that wasn’t really helpful.
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Nitrogen in the air is like a product packed in way too sturdy plastic ([you probably know what I mean](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wrap_Rage_Example.jpg)). It’s technically there, but you can’t use it without a tool. Some bacteria have scissors. They can open the packaging and make it useful – to them, and also to others afterwards.
Nitrogen usually forms three bonds. As gas, all three bonds are formed with another nitrogen atom. That’s a very sturdy connection that is difficult to break apart. Plants don’t have the tools for that. Some bacteria do, and they use the nitrogen to make other molecules where the nitrogen is bound to three different atoms. That’s much more accessible, now you only need to break one bond at a time. Fertilizer has nitrogen in more accessible form, too.
Oxygen and CO2 are much easier to break apart.
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