The algae that fuels the brain

Jpost

The brain is the body’s main energy consumer, requiring a constant supply of oxygen for its activity. A person weighing 63 kg consumes an average of 250 milliliters of oxygen per minute, under standard atmospheric pressure. In humans, holding one’s breath for a few minutes is sufficient to cause irreversible damage to the brain and the nerve cells within it. In a new study researchers were able to provide frog tadpoles with an alternative oxygen source – using unicellular algae that were placed inside their brains.

The air we breathe contains 21% oxygen, and most of the creatures living currently on Earth use this oxygen to produce most of the energy they require. It is therefore astounding to realize that up to a billion years ago there was almost no oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere. It began to accumulate only after the appearance of the first photosynthetic organisms. 

During the process of photosynthesis, an organism absorbs carbon dioxide from the air and uses sunlight and water to produce energy in the form of sugars. The by-product of this process is oxygen, which is released into the Earth’s atmosphere. For millions of years, photosynthetic organisms, which initially included mainly cyanobacteria and unicellular algae, have slowly changed the composition of our world’s atmosphere. Gradually, as more oxygen accumulated in the air, organisms capable of exploiting it in order to produce energy through the process of respiration began to appear. Today, most of the living organisms around us, including ourselves, require a constant supply of oxygen to survive. Animals absorb oxygen from their environment using their lungs, gills or skin…