Science & Nature

Earth's atmosphere is what allows life to exist on this planet. Carbon dioxide gets a lot of media coverage because of its role in global warming, but in fact, most of Earth's atmosphere is made...

Oxygen generators are also called oxygen concentrators. They come in many sizes and have several different functional properties. Oxygen generators are used in industrial conditions to meet...

External respiration is part of a three-part process that includes external respiration, internal respiration and cellular respiration, which together constitute how we exchange gases with our...

Glucose is a type of simple sugar needed for energy by the red blood cells and the brain. The molecule helps construct and break down vitamins, sugars and proteins in the body. It is found in...

Respiration is a biological process that involves the exchange of gases. The most common form of respiration involves the absorption of oxygen and the release of carbon dioxide. This common form...

H2O is the chemical formula for a water molecule. The elements of oxygen and hydrogen combine to make water, which is considered a compound because it consists of more than one element.

Plant respiration is the opposite of photosynthesis, which is a biological process performed by green plants that creates oxygen and releases it into the air. During respiration, plants absorb...

Ponds and other small, stagnant bodies of water require just the right balance of plant and animal life to thrive. They are miniature ecosystems, containing a whole food chain of organisms from...

When most of us think about respiration, we think about breathing, or the process of inhaling and exhaling. That's correct, but only partially so. Respiration involves both the acts of gas...

Hydrolysis is the electrical process of separating hydrogen and oxygen gas from liquid water. By this electrochemical reaction, oxygen and hydrogen gases can be created for use as fuels....

Rock crystals are the second most abundant mineral in the earth's crust. Made of silicon and oxygen, the mineral is commonly known as quartz around the world. There are a variety of different...

Hydrogen fuel can be made from water by an electrical process called hydrolysis. It is an electrochemical reaction in which the oxygen and hydrogen molecules in water (H2O) are separated. As...

Magnetism comes in a variety of forms. Ferromagnetic materials have strong magnetic attraction. Iron and similar metals have this property. Most other metals are paramagnetic, or weakly...

While iron has been used by humans for around 3,000 years, it has only been in the last 150 years that processing iron into its alloy steel has been commercially viable. Iron is a very common...

To write the formula for zinc sulfate, it is first necessary to know what it is. Zinc sulfate is a compound of zinc, sulfur and oxygen. If it has not been oven-dried, it will contain "water of...

Oxygen is a natural element essential to all human life on Earth, as well as the lives of other air-breathing mammals. But there are some living things on Earth, including some organisms, that...

Modern commercial airliners fly at altitudes which, without protection, would quickly become dangerous for anyone flying inside. To counter the low air pressure and cold temperatures, aircraft are...

A number of different ozonator manufacturers have marketed the use of ozone to destroy mold infestations. There is argument as to how effective ozone is at this, but there is no doubt ozone gas is...

Hydrogen and oxygen are two very important elements: water molecules (H2O) consist of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atoms. When you perform an experiment to decompose water into these two...

Liquid oxygen is a man-made fluid derived from pure oxygen gas. While liquid oxygen has some applications, mostly as an ingredient in certain types of fuel, it is often converted to a liquid state...

Photosynthesis allows plants to convert water and carbon dioxide into carbohydrates in the form of sugars and starches. Plants carry a green chemical called chlorophyll that, when combined with...

As a result of his experiments combining oxygen and carbon, John Dalton observed the ratio of carbon to oxygen always remained constant in each compound. To explain why atoms combined in fixed...

Sucrose, or table sugar (C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁), is one of the best-known organic compounds in the world. Sucrose is a disaccharide, which means it is two simple...

Catalase is a common antioxidant enzyme which is produced naturally in almost all living organisms. The reactions in catalyses are important to life, for example, it helps the body to break down...

Plankton is the basis of freshwater and saltwater ecosystems, meaning that all aquatic life is dependent upon the energy and oxygen it provides. Plankton is important to the food web as the...

Liverworts are small plants that use chlorophyll to harness light energy to accomplish carbon fixation during the process of photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is accomplished with the use of water...

Every living thing needs energy in order to survive. Humans and other animals get energy from the food they eat, but what about plants and trees? Green plants use energy from the sun to create...

Knowing how to balance a chemical reaction is a fundamental part of chemistry. The first law of thermodynamics says that energy cannot be created or destroyed. Yet when you first look at some...

Hydrogen combines with oxygen to form water (H2O). The reaction is exothermic, releasing a great deal of energy. This reaction has been used as the basis of rocket fuel for decades, to reduce...

Photosynthesis allows plants to convert light into food, removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and releases oxygen into the atmosphere. Without plants that perform photosynthesis, the oxygen...

Hydrogen has historically been used as a rocket fuel, along with oxygen, because hydrocarbons can't burn in space. Since the 1990s, hydrogen has been considered as a car fuel, perhaps even...

Hydrogen and oxygen in liquid water can be separated by electricity with a process called hydrolysis. A direct current drives the reaction, with oxygen and hydrogen gas bubbling off of separate...

Deep inside the bones, a soft tissue, known as the bone marrow acts as a factory to produce blood. Blood has three main components: red cells, white cells and platelets. Red cells carry oxygen...

The circulatory system and the respiratory system work closely together to ensure that organ tissues receive enough oxygen. Oxygen is required for cellular functions. The air breathed in and held...

Earthworms tend to surface in large numbers during heavy rains for several reasons, not simply because the oxygen levels in the soil changes. Earthworms need to remain moist to survive and...

Helium balloons are popular children's toys because they rise into the air, needing to be tethered with a string to keep them from flying away. Balloons blown up with breath, on the other hand,...

The health hazards associated with overexposure to argon are minimal. But it is a simple asphyxiant, so in ceratin cases a release of a large volume of argon can pose a hazard of asphyxiation. ...

If you've ever seen the Statue of Liberty, you may have wondered why the statue is green. The statue was a gift from the French in 1886, commemorating the century that passed since the American...

Dissolved oxygen is defined as the amount of oxygen that has dissolved into a body of water. The presence of oxygen in water is an important factor for sustaining life within a pond, lake, river...

While simple sugar structures are common and necessary for many types of life, including humans and plants, complex sugars like sucrose are rarer and do not form as easily. Sucrose is one of the...

Hydrogen is the lightest and simplest element known to exist in the universe. A hydrogen atom is composed of a single electron orbiting a single proton. It is a gas at normal temperature and...

Respiration can refer to many different processes, including the exchange of gases in more complex organisms like animals and the process by which cells oxidize food supplies. When human refer to...

A large sheet of muscle, known as the diaphragm, lies beneath the lungs at the base of the ribcage. The lungs are not muscles, and by themselves, are incapable of drawing air into them. With the...

Although the process is called cellular respiration (CR), cells do not actually "breathe" as organisms do. Instead, they take in a supply of nutrients that they use for energy, and release...

Air is a mixture of Oxygen, Nitrogen and small amounts of other gases. Theoretically (and in practice) it is possible to separate these gases from each other, and extract them.

Respiration is a cellular process. At its core is the conversion of the sugar glucose into an energy form that the cell can use. This conversion is mediated by structures called mitochondria...

Large lake and ponds, especially those that are still, require aeration to maintain an ecosystem. Dissolved oxygen keeps fish, plants and other living creatures in your pond healthy. If you have a...

Earthworms are invertebrate creatures that live mostly underground, where conditions are cool and moist. Their body has no skeletal structure. Instead, it consists of flexible segments covered in...

The circulatory system is an interconnected, blood and waste distribution system that connects to every part of the body. The system includes the heart and all of the arteries, veins, capillaries...

Plants have different and noticeable reactions to light and dark. During the process of photosynthesis, plants use energy from the sun to produce oxygen, and in the darkness, plants respire and ...