i bet humans would be 8x buffer if we could fix atmospheric nitrogen
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Replying to @eigenrobot
wait I'm out of the loop, is our atmospheric nitrogen fucked?
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Replying to @AndrewDixonSo
humans need nanomachine implants that replicate the haber process at sub-organelle scales
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Replying to @eigenrobot
I'm not trolling, I know so little biology. From spending 30 seconds reading about Haber process it's to turn nitrogen into ammonia? do we need that?
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Replying to @AndrewDixonSo
Yup Nitrogen in the atmosphere is diatomic (that's :N≡N: in intro chemistry notation) and incredibly stable and hard to break But, N molecules are usually a limiting factor in making new proteins Organisms that can pull air N into other forms are called nitrogen fixers
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Replying to @eigenrobot @AndrewDixonSo
It's very expensive in energetic terms so most organisms don't do it Mostly just unicellular fellas Some plants have symbiotic relationships with N fixers around their roots, piping them sugar in exchange for fixed nitrogen
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Replying to @eigenrobot @AndrewDixonSo
Soil rich in fixed nitrogen is nice for plants and lots of fertilizer functions by increasing bioavailable N Historically we got this from stuff like urine and especially mining giant piles of guano in caves in Argentina, and by mining mummies in Egypt
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Replying to @eigenrobot @AndrewDixonSo
But, during WW1 Germany was cut off from these sources A guy named Haber invented an electrochemical method for fixing atmospheric oxygen This prolonged the war by preventing German starvation and also caused an economic collapse in Argentina
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Oh interesting That's probably correct likely confusing with aluminum extraction from (?bauxite?)
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