Oxygen is combustible and is therefore can be used as fuel. Could our bodies become so efficient that we would not need to injest external sources of fuel? A group of people known as breatharians claim to have done just that.
2007-11-08 12:30:07 · 6 answers · asked by Wait a Minute 4 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Biology
Peter C is right. You can just try it and find out if you, too, could exist as a breatharian. A very simple experiment anyone can test for themselves.
2007-11-08 13:00:31 · answer #1 · answered by Joan H 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Try it and find out. Oxygen is not a fuel rather an oxidizer, it aids in combustion. Unfortunately the human body needs a little more substance to sustain it.
2007-11-08 12:38:55 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Humans also need to replenish other molecules. We are carbon-based life forms, so we require organic (carbon-based molecules), not just oxygen. We also need, to pick a few random examples, iron, for our red blood cells, potassium and sodium, to allow nerve impulse transmission, phosphorus, which is present in ATP and ADP for cellular respiration, nitrogen, sulphur, hydrogen, present in proteins, and a whole lot of other things.
These are not present in air and water (even polluted air and water) at anything like the concentrations needed to sustain us. The breathairians must be very skinny and malnourished.
2007-11-09 09:33:36 · answer #3 · answered by Cathy T 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Oxygen is NOT combustible, it SUPPORTS combustion, and therefore you need something to COMBINE with the oxygen, like carbon.
2007-11-08 13:42:16 · answer #4 · answered by Howard H 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
What would a breatharian use to build their carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids? It wouldn't work.
2007-11-08 12:38:54 · answer #5 · answered by ecolink 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
No. What would the fuel be we "burn" how could cells maintain homeostasis at temperatures associated with burning?
2007-11-08 12:37:37 · answer #6 · answered by bioguy 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋