I asked a similar question about blood and the circulatory system the other day and got a very fulfilling answer, so trying again.


So I imagine at an atomic level, or possibly cellular level, things like osmosis or the movement of cells and atoms from one place to another is quite slow? I imagine H2O molecules taking minutes to 'seep' through some membrane?

But my question is to do with the movement of oxygen from the air we breathe to the blood that transports it around our bodies...

If you think about it, you breathe in, and then usually breathe all that air out again straight away ! And only a portion of that air will be against a wall of any sort... how does the transition of oxygen happen quickly and efficiently enough in order to feed how whole bodies?

I'm thinking gases diffuse through membranes a bit faster than you think.

One whiff of cyanide (HCN) is almost immediately fatal. Even if you hold your breath, it seeps thru the skin and kills you. (that's why it's the choice of the California gas chamber TPTB)

(November 8, 2014 at 5:51 pm)vorlon13 Wrote: I'm thinking gases diffuse through membranes a bit faster than you think.

One whiff of cyanide (HCN) is almost immediately fatal. Even if you hold your breath, it seeps thru the skin and kills you. (that's why it's the choice of the California gas chamber TPTB)

Wow, great answer thanks....I was slightly off the mark..

It's also not a particularly efficient process. 75% of inhaled O2 is exhaled unused.

Curiously, chickens do much better.

Amazing science..

Just because this is an atheist forum

References, people! We need actual credible references for those claims!
75% of inhaled oxygen is exhaled unused?! I call BS, Prove it!

http://www.faqs.org/health/Body-by-Desig...tions.html
It seems you're right!
I bow down to you, oh most wise master!

I don't know why this miffs anyone. It is simply an act of transfer. Some of it gets absorbed and used in the process and some of it gets unused or transferred in other ways. Even with food some of it gets absorbed and some of it can simply pass through the system and expelled as waste.

It is just another act of transfer. It is harder to understand at our macro view and especially harder for laypersons who are not scientists. Just the mere depiction of an atom and how easy the electrons move around and interact tells me that because of that simple structure moves at a much faster rate and is not observable with the naked eye at the molecular or atom level.

The complexity of the process confuses the layperson until they accept the simplicity of the individual parts.

(November 8, 2014 at 6:51 pm)Brian37 Wrote: I don't know why this miffs anyone. It is simply an act of transfer. Some of it gets absorbed and used in the process and some of it gets unused or transferred in other ways. Even with food some of it gets absorbed and some of it can simply pass through the system and expelled as waste.

It is just another act of transfer. It is harder to understand at our macro view and especially harder for laypersons who are not scientists. Just the mere depiction of an atom and how easy the electrons move around and interact tells me that because of that simple structure moves at a much faster rate and is not observable with the naked eye at the molecular or atom level.

The complexity of the process confuses the layperson until they accept the simplicity of the individual parts.

Well I'm not miffed, just wanted the info, not the lecture thanks !

(November 8, 2014 at 6:08 pm)vorlon13 Wrote: Curiously, chickens do much better.

All birds, dinosaurs and their relatives do it better, even more distant relations of birds like alligators do it better. Most mammals do it poorly.

Another trivia, the gas exchange in a chicken happens inside its bones, abdominal cavity, as well as in its lungs. If you nick the main wing bone of a chicken, you can tape up the chicken's nose and beak, and it can still breath.

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(November 8, 2014 at 6:04 pm)Cthulhu Dreaming Wrote: It's also not a particularly efficient process. 75% of inhaled O2 is exhaled unused.

Also, if the air you breath has no oxygen content, your body would not alert you to the fact that you are suffocating. You just pass out peacefully and die.