• Question: Do you think that sometime in the future our cells will be able to use a gas other than oxygen to survive?

    Asked by Clemmie.S to David, Dawn, Sian on 23 Jun 2016. This question was also asked by Chris.
    • Photo: David Robertson

      David Robertson answered on 23 Jun 2016:

      Not really my area of expertise, but I’ll try and answer. Cells need energy to work, so in principal ay reaction that produces energy could be used to power a cell. At the moment we “burn” sugar with oxygen to get the energy (you can tell I’m not a biologist!). The other main gas in air is nitrogen, which I don’t think will “burn” with sugar, or anything else, so I think we are stuck with oxygen.

    • Photo: Dawn Lau

      Dawn Lau answered on 23 Jun 2016:

      I think it’s unlikely. Our cells are only adapted to use oxygen, which is required for the conversion process of sugar into energy for the cells to function properly. The chemical reactions that make energy inside the cell cannot happen if there is no oxygen – it is essential to the reactions.

      Of the 3 main processes that cells use to produce energy, 2 of them require oxygen. The process that doesn’t require oxygen, called glycolysis, probably doesn’t produce enough energy for us, so we have to rely on the other two processes (the citric acid cycle, and oxidative phosphorylation). Basically, oxygen binds to molecules during the energy making process to produce chemical products that are necessary for the subsequent steps.

    • Photo: Sian Thomas

      Sian Thomas answered on 26 Jun 2016:

      Outside my area of expertise – but it’s so complicated I doubt it!

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