Page 164 - The Creation Of The Universe

162 THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE

Among all other atoms, hydrogen combines with oxygen the most readily
and releases the most energy in the process. If you need a fuel to burn in
oxygen, you can't do better than hydrogen. From the standpoint of its val-
ue as a fuel, carbon ranks third after hydrogen and boron. In The Fitness of
the Environment, Lawrence Henderson comments on the extraordinary
fitness that is involved here:
The very chemical changes, which for so many other reasons seem to
be best fitted to become the processes of physiology, turn out to be the
very ones which can divert the greatest flood of energy into the stream
of life. 91

The Signs of Creation in Fire (Or Why You Don't Just
Burst Into Flame)
As we've just seen, the fundamental reaction that releases the energy
necessary for the survival of oxygen-breathing organisms is the oxidation
of hydrocarbons. But this simple fact raises a troubling question: If our bod-
ies are made up essentially of hydrocarbons, why aren't they also oxidized?
Putting it another way, why don't we just go up in flame, like a match that's
been struck?
Our bodies are constantly in contact with the oxygen of the air and yet
they don't oxidize: they don't catch fire. Why not?
The reason for this seeming paradox is that, under normal conditions of
temperature and pressure, the molecular (O ) form of oxygen has a sub-
2
stantial degree of inertness or "nobility". (In the sense that chemists use the
term, "nobility" is the reluctance (or inability) of a substance to enter into
chemical reactions with other substances.) But this raises another ques-
tions: If molecular oxygen is so "noble" as to avoid incinerating us, how is
this same molecule made to enter into chemical reactions inside our bod-
ies?
The answer to this question, which perplexed chemists as early as the
mid 19th century, did not become known until the second half of the 20th
century, when biochemical researchers discovered the existence of en-