Thinking about gas

I watched a Chem1A webcast for old times sake. News changes everyday but basic chemistry tends to stay pretty consistent so I decided to skip my Morning Edition and brush up on exploding balloons. I must say, I enjoy this new chemistry teacher. He's just so... enthusiastic. Maybe it's that I've already taken the class or I'm not as sleep-deprived as my college days, but I found him pretty easy to understand.

watch here.

Plus, listening to his lecture something most peculiar occurred. I felt the rusted cogs in my brain begin to creak then move with a force that caused me to begin pondering things and questioning the world in a way that probably hasn't happened in years. Thinking feels weird.

Example, oxygen (O2, the stuff we breathe in, just a refresher) makes up approximately 20% of our air. The majority, approximately 80% is actually nitrogen (N2). Nitrogen (just N element in general) is very important for plants, that's why we dump heaps of fertilizer on anything that grows (Thanks to Fritz Haber!). But what about us? For every breath we intake, about 80% of it must actually be nitrogen, right? We grew up learning we breathe in O2 and release CO2. Do our lungs absorb the N2 as well? Our bodies need nitrogen too. Nitrogen is in amine groups, it's in all our proteins, it's in our urine!

Actually, most of what we inhale is also exhaled. Only a small percentage of oxygen inhaled is absorbed each breath and most animals (including humans) get most of our nitrogen from eating plants and other animals.

So plants breathe in nitrogen and share it with us? Mmmm, not really, N2 is pretty strongly bonded and doesn't like separating that easily. There are bacteria called diazotrophs (includes cyanobacteria and rhizobia- not the white cotton balls on your old strawberries, that's rhizopus) that convert nitrogen N2 gas into ammonia NH3 (called "nitrogen fixation"). Plants get their nitrogen (and other yummy goodness necessary for growing) from the soil. The Haber process (or Haber-Bosch process for extra props) is an artificial way (aka laboratory way) to convert N2 to ammonia using a catalyst and chemical reaction. That's how we make nitrate fertilizer (...and explosives).

And then I started thinking, what about nitrous oxide? You know, the inhaled anesthetic that makes people woozy and giggly before getting their wisdom teeth yanked out of your gums. I've never experienced it but we definitely inhale and absorb that stuff. What about that molecule makes it absorbent?

Actually, a lot of this wasn't in the lecture. Just the 20% oxygen and 80% nitrogen being in the air part. The rest came from wikipedia and my pondering. I sure hope wikipedia is telling the truth or a lot of what I think I know would be a lie.