Oxygen-+Justin+Calimlim+Adopt+an+Element

Oxygen: Totally Top Secret

 Take a deep breath. Breathe in, then breathe out. 21% of what you hopefully just inhaled was all oxygen. A few fun facts to support this are that oxygen makes up almost 50% of the earth’s crust, it takes up two-thirds of the mass of the human body, and it is also nine-tenths of of the mass of H2O (Water). It takes up all of this space, yet the world cannot see it. Oxygen even takes up 1% of the sun! It is entirely hidden under us, above us, and even inside of us. It is the top secret element. Be prepared to have the secrets of oxygen unveiled unto you.  Oxygen was first revealed and documented in 1774 as a distinct element by Joseph Priestly and Carl Wilhelm Scheele. It’s name derives from the Greek words,”oxy genes,” meaning “acid former.” There are many different discovered isotopes of oxygen. The most common isotope is oxygen with a mass number of 16 (O-16) at 99.757%. Next is O-18 at 0.205% and O-17 at 0.038%. O-12 through O-15 and O-19 through O-28 are unstable and have a half-life from 1.139x10-21 seconds to 122.24 seconds. This is some of the history.  This element has a few chemical properties. In the the air that we breathe, oxygen makes up one-fifth of the volume of air. The human body is two-thirds oxygen. Water is 87% oxygen. When oxygen is in its natural form in our atmosphere, it is known as a diatomic gas. Diatomic molecules are simply two atoms that were conjoined. When they are two atoms of the same element, they are known as homonuclear molecules. When the two bonded atoms are of different elements, they are heteronuclear molecules. Oxygen, when in the air, is homonuclear diatomic gas. It sounds complicated, but it is not.  Oxygen is very helpful to the world. Oxygen gas is used in industry for cutting, welding, and melting metals. Since oxygen can produce temperatures around 3000 degrees Celsius, certain blow torches, such as the oxy-hydrogen and oxy-acetylene blow torches can be used. For health purposes, oxygen supplements are held in stock in hospitals for patients that are not breathing sufficiently. It is also medically used to destroy bacteria and treat carbon monoxide victims. Interestingly, oxygen-18 and oxygen-16 found in excavated fossils to find out how the climate of Earth many years ago. The most necessary of all of these uses of oxygen is respiration in life. In order for living organisms to survive, oxygen is needed. Oxygen is truly a necessity to us all.  However, oxygen can also be a killer of life as it does sustain it. Oxygen toxicity occurs when oxygen levels are much higher than 21% on Earth. It definitely will occur at 50% oxygen in the atmosphere. Some symptoms caused by oxygen toxicity are twitching, dizziness and nausea. When the toxicity becomes far too extreme, seizures and even death may occur. Oxygen is one conniving element. Watch out!  In conclusion, one may find that this top secret information of oxygen may be quite surprising. It has many different and quite distinct isotopes. Each of these isotopes have some chemical properties. Lastly oxygen has many positive uses in our world, but there a few quite dangerous negatives that could be fatal. Be safe, and be aware of that oxygen. I mean, it’s all around us. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Symptoms_of_oxygen_toxicity.png http://www.chem4kids.com/files/elements/008_shells.html http://themetapicture.com/oxygen-and-magnesium/ media type="custom" key="23890314" align="center" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4wveY2-lCo Works Cited "Definition of Diatomic." Definition of Diatomic. Web. 22 Sept. 2013 <[]>. "The Element Oxygen." It's Elemental -. Steve Gagnon. Web. 22 Sept. 2013. <[]>. Gagnon, Steve. "Isotopes of the Element Oxygen." It's Elemental -. Web. 22 Sept. 2013. <[|http:// education.jlab.org/itselemental/iso008.html]>. "Oxygen Facts - Air, Gas, Atom, Uses, Properties, Water, Ozone, Element O, Mask." Oxygen Facts - Air, Gas, Atom, Uses, Properties, Water, Ozone, Element O, Mask. 13 July 2013. Web. 22 Sept. 2013. <[]>. "Oxygen." WebElements Periodic Table of the Elements. Mark Winter, 1993. Web. 22 Sept. 2013. <[]>. "Uses Of." Uses Of. 2013. Web. 22 Sept. 2013. <[]>.