this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2023
384 points (96.8% liked)

Asklemmy

43993 readers
1489 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

For me it is the fact that our blood contains iron. I earlier used to believe the word stood for some 'organic element' since I couldn't accept we had metal flowing through our supposed carbon-based bodies, till I realized that is where the taste and smell of blood comes from.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Our atmosphere contains water and oxygen, which is an incredibly hostile environment for metals like this. Imagine, we’re breathing this stuff that attacks so many elements mercilessly.

Hydrogen and oxygen and very reactive, which is exactly why they are so necessary for survival. Our bodies function off of chemical reactions, it makes sense to power that off of the most reactive elements it can easily find.