femsci-nerd

femsci-nerd t1_iuifb1p wrote

Nitrogen in the air is in the form of N2 and it rather stable because it has a triple bond between the N atoms. It takes more energy to break the N2 triple bond and bacteria have been selected to do that energy requiring step. It gets broken down in the soil by bacteria in to amino-compounds which are more easily reactive and accessible for the plant. It's all governed by thermodynamic. For the plant, it is easier to take up N from the soil because it is usually broken in to molecules that are only single bonded to it and N has an extra pair of unpaired electrons that plants access much more easily and with a favorable thermodynamic.

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femsci-nerd t1_iuiemb8 wrote

The WBCs know to "follow" the bacteria through the process of chemotaxis. Invaders like bacteria quickly get covered with cytokines and IgM and these are the things that the WBCs are attracted to. It's basically driven by thermodynamics but they are reacting to the blood soluble things that get quickly bound by non-self molecules.

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femsci-nerd t1_iueqn0b wrote

After the bomb was dropped in Nagasaki and Hiroshima they were called The Pink Cities because they turned pink from the aspergillis. There are spores everywhere and extreme temp changes cause them to bloom. The extreme heat of the bombs shocked the spores open and within 2, weeks the cities turned pink. To destroy the ecosystem to the point where fungi could not thrive wold be to destroy the area to the point that NOTHING could live.

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