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Why are we so concerned with oxygen production yet we never hear about nitrogen production, though we actually need 78% nitrogen vs 21% oxygen to survive? (lemmy.ca)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Excess oxygen is actually harmful to humans, ~~but all the climate warnings are about losing oxygen, not nitrogen~~ edit: but when we look for habitable planets, our focus is ‘oxygen rich atmosphere’, not ‘nitrogen rich’, and in medical settings, we’re always concerned about low oxygen, not nitrogen.

Deep sea divers also use a nitrogen mix (nitrox) to stay alive and help prevent the bends, so nitrogen seems pretty important.

It seems weird that our main focus is oxygen when our main air intake is nitrogen. What am I missing?

edit: my climate example was poor and I think misleading. Added a better example instead.

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

New comment based on your edits.

When we breath, we use the oxygen, but we do not use the nitrogen. The nitrogen can actually be replaced with another inert gas and the "air" is breathable. Thinking about diving specifically, nitrox is actually an oxygen rich (nitrogen poor) mixture. More extreme mixtures use helium in place of some nitrogen (and sometime oxygen depending on the depth).

In your body, the amount of oxygen in our blood is critical for survival. Having a lot of nitrogen is actually not good. Too much is what causes the "bends", again related to diving.

When looking at exoplanet atmospheres, we look for oxygen rich because it likely indicates water. We believe that planets with a high amount of water are more likely to support life similar to ours. It is possible that another form of life exists that doesn't need oxygen or water, but we know for certain that oxygen and water can support life.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Is there some threat to the worlds supply of atmospheric nitrogen?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

My climate example was poor, I’m sorry. A better example of what I mean is that when we look for habitable planets, our focus is ‘oxygen rich atmosphere’, not ‘nitrogen rich’, though most of our breathable air is nitrogen and too much oxygen will actually kill us.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I suppose because we don’t really use the nitrogen - it’s inert, unlike oxygen which is part of vital respiration. I’m no expert but it’s conceivable some other mix of gases could work as the inert portion besides nitrogen, but oxygen is required. Seems like it would take a lot of luck to find the right concentration though.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

Calling it "inert" is misleading. It's involved in all kinds of chemical reactions that are essential for life (and lots of non-biological reactions, too). It's only inert in the sense that most living things can't use it directly from the air and rely on nitrogen-fixing plants and bacteria to make it into molecules we can use.