this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2024
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Science Memes

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Oxygen (mander.xyz)
submitted 2 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Organisms need some oxidizing agent to respire. We use oxygen because it's very highly reactive and thanks to photosynthesis is goddamn everywhere.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Some use radiation tho.

https://www.sciencealert.com/bacterium-lives-off-nuclear-energy-alien-life-europa

And maybe related https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiotrophic_fungus

Would be rad if we could live off space radiation.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Can you explain that first part in more detail? I really know nothing about this and I'm curious to hear more.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Fire gets it's energy from fuel+oxygen. Most life does too. Plants (and other photosynthetic organisms) can also get energy from light but that requires you to sit in the sun doing not much for a long time. There's also chemosynthesis, where energy is obtained from a chemical reaction, but that's usually not nearly as powerful as oxidation.

Put another way, a car with NOS is way faster and more powerful than one without. So too is life that uses oxygen more powerful than life that doesn't.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That's really interesting. I didn't realize the burning in slow motion thing was so literal. Thanks for the comment!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It's so ingrained in our life processes. You know Calories? The capital C version(or Kcal in some countries) is 1000 calories. What do they measure? The potential heat whatever is being measured can generate. Our fuel intake is measured by how well it burns.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Hell yeah brother cranks motorcycle