Who Discovered Oxygen?

Today is more "Science with Papaw". Take a deep breath. You just breathed in a whole lot of oxygen. You can’t see it, but it’s there. Your cells need it to do all the cell things they do. Otherwise you wouldn’t’ be alive. Now breathe out. Your body just got rid of a bunch of carbon dioxide, a gas that your cell don’t need. Oxygen is odorless (you can’t smell it) and colorless. But it is very important. Without it, we couldn’t breathe!

But have you ever wondered who discovered oxygen? In 1774, Joseph Priestley, a minister, tutor, and amateur scientist, was the tutor for a very rich family. They actually had a laboratory in the study room! On day Priestley did some experiments with a bell jar and a candle. When he lit the candle and covered it with the jar, the candle soon went out. He couldn’t even light it again! He later put a green plant inside the jar. After a day or two, he tried to light the candle again. This time it could burn, well at least for a little while. He decided that the plant made some kind of special air that the candle needed to burn. He named it Oxygen.

A few years later a man named Jan Ingenhousz found that water plants also give off oxygen when they are put in the light. We now call this process photosynthesis which means “putting together with light”. Plants make sugar from water and carbon dioxide. In the process they give off oxygen.

Here’s is a video from one of the aquariums in my classroom. If you look closely, you will see a small stream of bubbles coming from the plant. These are tiny bubble of oxygen! In fact, most of Earth’s oxygen comes from tiny green plants that live in the ocean called algae.

 Take some time this week and look around at the plants around you. There may be plants in your house. There are plants and trees around your house. Some of you live where most of the plants are covered with snow. That’s ok, because somewhere on the Earth there are plants making oxygen for you too. There’s more than enough to go around!

Isn’t it amazing? God created the plants to make the air we breathe. In fact, they like the carbon dioxide we breathe out! The Earth is such a special and wonderful place. We need to be sure to take care of it! You can help by recycling, planting trees, and helping to keep out lakes, ponds, and rivers clean.

 

Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:11-12 NIV

See you next week!

Papaw