Describes the chemical elements with similar physical and molecular properties as oxygen, including how they combine with other elements and each other, and where they can be found in everyday objects.

This Very Short Introduction traces the history and cultural impact of the elements on humankind, and examines why people have long sought to identify the substances around them. Looking beyond the Periodic Table, the author takes the reader on an engaging and entertaining tour: from the Greek philosophers who propounded a system with four elements - earth, air, fire, and water - to the modern-day scientists who are able to create their own.

This presentation describes various aspects of the regulation of tissue oxygenation, including the roles of the circulatory system, respiratory system, and blood, the carrier of oxygen within these components of the cardiorespiratory system. The respiratory system takes oxygen from the atmosphere and transports it by diffusion from the air in the alveoli to the blood flowing through the pulmonary capillaries. The cardiovascular system then moves the oxygenated blood from the heart to the microcirculation of the various organs by convection, where oxygen is released from hemoglobin in the red blood cells and moves to the parenchymal cells of each tissue by diffusion. Oxygen that has diffused into cells is then utilized in the mitochondria to produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the energy currency of all cells. The mitochondria are able to produce ATP until the oxygen tension or PO2 on the cell surface falls to a critical level of about 4–5 mm Hg. Thus, in order to meet the energetic needs of cells, it is important to maintain a continuous supply of oxygen to the mitochondria at or above the critical PO2 . In order to accomplish this desired outcome, the cardiorespiratory system, including the blood, must be capable of regulation to ensure survival of all tissues under a wide range of circumstances. The purpose of this presentation is to provide basic information about the operation and regulation of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems, as well as the properties of the blood and parenchymal cells, so that a fundamental understanding of the regulation of tissue oxygenation is achieved.

Explores the history of the chemical element oxygen and explains its chemistry, how it works in the body, and its importance in our lives.

Don't you just love oxygen? It’s a very useful element as it helps keep you alive. Trees create oxygen that’s why we should care for them. It’s a very rewarding feeling to know more fun facts about your favorite element! Open this book today!

Oxygen offers fresh perspectives on our own lives and deaths, explaining modern killer diseases, why we age, and what we can do about it. Advancing revelatory new ideas, following chains of evidence, the book ranges through many disciplines, from environmental sciences to molecular medicine. Damage to DNA caused by oxidative stress appears to explain aging and many of its diseases, hence the popularity in alternative health circles of antioxidants. But antioxidants alone fail to prevent aging. Lane suggests two different avenues of study: modulation of the immune system, which generates free radicals as part of its defense against infectious diseases; and ways of improving the health of our cellular mitochondria, on which many age-related ailments seem to depend. Provocative and complexly argued. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.