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[-] mavu@discuss.tchncs.de 10 points 21 hours ago

Wel, every single human who breathes Oxygen dies eventually. Just saying.

[-] pocker_machine@lemmy.world 2 points 20 hours ago

So to not die, we just need to stop breathing !

[-] Meron35@lemmy.world 11 points 21 hours ago

Pure oxygen is actually toxic for humans, leading to hyperoxia. People who breath pure oxygen such as scuba divers need specific training.

Oxygen toxicity - Wikipedia - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen_toxicity

[-] Shayeta@feddit.org 5 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

hyper - meaning high,

ox - meaning the animal Ox,

-ia - meaning presence in blood.

High Ox presence in blood. You can imagine how dangerous that is.

[-] saigot@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 day ago

I always think this when I see those annoying posts about diet coke dissolving screws.

[-] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Oxygen will burn your lungs, that’s why we dilute it with nitrogen

[-] AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net 19 points 1 day ago

100% of people exposed to oxygen die.

[-] CptOblivius@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago

Our lives are a balance between needing oxygen and preventing oxidation damage. We have several enzymes that constantly reduce radicals and chemicals caused by oxidation. So yes oxygen is continuously damaging us. And will eventually win.

[-] roguetrick@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago

Life is a game of burning but trying to do it slowly.

[-] Joeyowlhouse@lemmy.wtf 18 points 1 day ago

Wait until you read about Dihydrogen Monoxide. Everyone who has ever been exposed to it has died.

[-] xav@programming.dev 5 points 1 day ago

There's a whole website dedicated to raising awareness of its danger : https://www.dhmo.org/

[-] Joeyowlhouse@lemmy.wtf 1 points 1 day ago

The funny (and scary) thing is how many conspiracy theorists will not get the joke or realize it's water.

[-] icelimit@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Wait till you hear about this ancient roman curse called gravity.

[-] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 22 points 1 day ago

I mean, oxygen is the most aggressive oxidator, to the point we named the process after it.

[-] burntbacon@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 day ago

F you.

spoilerBrought to you by the highest oxidation gang.

[-] roguetrick@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

And if you meet flourine out on the wild, you will be F'ed. It will bind itself to you without your consent or caring about things like essential biological processes for life.

[-] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 day ago

Ban the wOkE government chemical Dihydrogen monoxide from our water supply! BAN DHMO, LIBERATE AMERICAN WATER FREEDOM! 🇺🇸🦅👊🇺🇲🔥🦅🇺🇸 USA! USA!

[-] KingCake_Baby@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

70-80+ years exposure to this stuff is lethal

[-] zr0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 60 points 2 days ago
[-] ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 19 points 1 day ago
[-] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

The 'Death Breathers' thing is a primary plot point /story device / world mechanic of the ludicrous, over the top, MARS ATTACKS! from 1996.

Just any case anyone hasn't seen it and wants to avoid spoilers, don't open this

Basically, it barely makes any actual sense, and... thats part of the point, to be a parody of how stupid 50s schlock alien movies were...

The Martians only breathe Nitrogen, and seem to asphyxiate if their helmets and pressure suits are removed or comprimised.

This makes no fucking sense whatsoever for multiple reasons:

Nitrogen is much, much less chemically reactive than Oxygen, and it seems quite unlikely that any kind of Nitrogen based metabolism could evolve basically anywhere, in any organic being, because of this...

Earth's atmosphere is like... ~70% Nitrogen.

Do... they... need literally 100% Nitrogen?

It... doesn't seem like the oxygen in the atmosphere is like... causing them to internally combust/melt the way say mustard gas, chlorine gas, makes a human melt from the inside out, by nature of being way way way more chemically reactive than oxygen.

What they do is act like ... they're asphyxiating, they gasp for air, not cough and vomit, eyes watering and burning/melting the way mustard gas fucks up people.

Also, at one point, a ludicrously disguised as a human, martian... is able to go undercover, with no protective pressure suit... because they have... chewing gum, that... releases nitrogen.

Again, if oxygen had a similar effect on them as chlorine gas has on us... this disguised martian should... still be basically burning/melting from being exposed to all the oxygen, and thats overlooking the ludicrousness of... nitrogen releasing chewing gum

[-] Efflixi@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

There are quite a few sci-fi stories and short stories built on a similar concept. One of my favorites is an alien ship lands on a random farm in the US and (leaving a lot of details out, read the book!) it comes to light that the aliens normally live at insanely hot temperatures like 900F (480C) and consider Earth an "Ice World" (that's also the name of the book). Anyway, one of the catches in the book is that farmer figures out the alien wants to trade (again skipping a lot of details) but all he has on him that he can give up is a cigarette (the farmer doesn't know it's super hot inside the ship). He does the trade and we later find out that most of the galaxy is INSANELY vulnerable to being 100% completely utterly addicted to nicotine. When the alien took in the cigarette it instantly vaporized and sent the nicotine into the air and they breathed it and became instantly addicted worse than any opiod addiction IRL.

[-] Pieisawesome@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 21 hours ago

You didn’t mention the book name, so how are we to read it?

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[-] NotSteve_@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 day ago

Unrelated but the bottom navbar in that screenshot makes me long for the Alien Blue days of Reddit. I also just miss that iOS design (along with the OS X Mavericks design)

[-] anomnom@sh.itjust.works 1 points 11 hours ago

Dude, I just had to use an old Mac with OS10.11 on it (I know not that old) to recover a laptop in target disk mode.

It still has the widgets!

I miss the widgets.

[-] Bosht@lemmy.world 22 points 1 day ago

I've currently been reducing my oxygen intake. My wife keeps telling me it's impossible and my doc says I'll supposedly die, but they're just hating on my progress.

[-] Zenith@lemm.ee 7 points 1 day ago

I got my oxygen intake down to single digits! My family wasn’t supportive however and got me a new pair of lungs, haters

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[-] Winter_Oven@piefed.social 36 points 2 days ago

On the topic, as oxidation is a pretty prevalent negative side effect of living, our body has multiple mechanisms to deal with it, no? So my question is: where do the "antioxidants" that we can eat come into the picture here? Are they like preventing oxidation from even occurring, or are they like the shields that our cells use to protect themselves from oxidative stress, or what have you?

[-] Ledericas@lemm.ee 2 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

we have enzymes to prevent oxygen radicals from forming. such as Superoxide dismutase, which is present in nearly every cell in our body, and we have 3 different version. most oxygen dependant organisms have similar enzymes.

another fun fact, our immune system can produce the same superoxide as a defense against bacterial infections, reactive oxygen species including radical oxygen. but bacteria can produce the enzyme to neutralize that too.

i think the dietary source, is somewhat alittle homeopathic/ pseudosciency, because our stomach acid would probably neutralize any beneficial effect before we can absorb it. of course there are some foods that provide nutrional benefit to certain cells(if they a chemical compound). but they dont have like anti-oxidant effect of something like superoxide dismutase. also because of this effect, people with chronic illness as a result of the dysfunction.

[-] liquorisquicker@sh.itjust.works 17 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Oxidation is the loss of electrons, whereas reduction is the gain of electrons. The mnemonic is OIL RIG: Oxidation Is Loss, Reduction Is Gain.

Oxygen is highly electronegative (second only to fluorine), meaning that it will strongly attract electrons. So, oxygen is good at oxidizing things. It's good at stealing their electrons. (When the oxygen takes the electron, the oxygen becomes reduced!)

The reason that oxygen is so important in your body for respiration is because of its high electronegativity. It is used as the final electron acceptor in a chain of chemical reactions that are used to convert high energy molecules that you've eaten into different high energy molecules that your body can use.

Think of the analogy of a staircase and a ball. The ball is an electron and the stairs are energy states of different molecules along the metabolic pathway. As the ball goes down the stairs, the electron loses energy (which is usually converted to ATP or NADH). At the bottom of the stairs is oxygen, once the electron gets there, it doesn't have anymore potential energy to lose, unless maybe you have some fluorine around. The final, reduced state of oxygen in this pathway is carbon dioxide. It's no longer useful for respiration and thankfully can just be exhaled. How convenient!

An oxygen missing an electron (an oxygen radical) is highly reactive. This is not good. It'll just steal an electron from whatever molecule is nearby. That may be DNA or any other molecule that it's in your best interest to keep intact. Antioxidants are helpful as electron donors, neutralizing radicals before they do damage.

[-] jj4211@lemmy.world 2 points 10 hours ago

Ok, I'm going to make a new nutritional supplement: "oops! all electrons!"

[-] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

antioxidants are our internal sacrificial anodes?

[-] peregrin5@lemm.ee 33 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Oxidation is how red blood cells collect oxygen to pass to the rest of the body. In fact it is iron in hemoglobin that "rusts" to collect the oxygen. You would die if your blood didn't "rust".

Antioxidants have nothing to do with this.

[-] rhombus@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago

The process you’re thinking of is oxygenation, not oxidation. Oxygenation is the binding of oxygen to other molecules, oxidation is the loss of electrons. When the iron in hemoglobin oxidizes (from Fe2+ to Fe3+) it stops binding with oxygen, and if it oxidizes further (to Fe4+) it can start oxidizing other molecules in your body. Your body has enzymes to reduce the iron back to a reactive state, but antioxidants also play a role in reducing oxidized molecules.

[-] peregrin5@lemm.ee 2 points 1 day ago

It's actually the opposite. When the oxygen binds to the iron it changes from Fe+2 to Fe+3 so the binding of oxygen to the iron in hemoglobin is an oxidation process. At that point it can't take more oxygen until it releases it in a reduction reaction.

The term "oxidation" is originally derived from reactions where a substance combines with oxygen but has since been generalized to any reaction where an electron is given up. So "oxidation" is the broader term and "oxygenation" is the specific oxidation reaction that results in binding oxygen.

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[-] olafurp@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

Cell mechanisms cause oxidative stress in the body which can lead to inflammation and faster aging. Antioxidants provide the body with an easy way to neutralise the bi-products.

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[-] Maeve@midwest.social 14 points 1 day ago

Antioxidants exist.

Statistically speaking, for humans, breathing oxygen does eventually have a 100% fatality rate.

[-] SnotFlickerman 23 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

You think that's bad, wait until you hear about dihydrogen monoxide! It's in almost everything, even the water you drink and the air you breathe!

[-] son_named_bort@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Did you know that dihydrogen monoxide kills more people than any other liquid? And yet, the government does nothing to ban it. This deadly liquid could be anywhere, even in your home!

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[-] veni_vedi_veni@lemmy.world 18 points 2 days ago

Don't forget, water is only one atom in it's molecular composition away from rocket fuel

[-] cRazi_man@europe.pub 10 points 1 day ago

Did you see what oxygen did to the Hindenburg? I'm not going to let that happen to me. Say no to big oxygen!

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[-] voodooattack@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Look at what it did to the Linux kernel too.

Tap for spoilerSsshhh. It made it better

[-] enkille@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago

if you haven't heard of air, it's an invisible blend of gases so addictive, we suffer fatal withdrawal symptoms within minutes of our supply being cut off

[-] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 10 points 2 days ago

You can combat dangerous oxygen with black smoke from burning oil.

[-] gedaliyah@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago

It makes my blood run blue just thinking about it

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this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2025
834 points (100.0% liked)

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