The Most Underrated Chemical Process on Earth｜Nitrogen Fixing
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- čas přidán 21. 01. 2021
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Why aren't more people talking about how cool Nitrogen is? Almost every single compound that makes you requires Nitrogen. And without organisms that take in nitrogen from our atmosphere and make it useful--all the complexity of life on earth wouldn't be possible. Let's take a look at the nitrogenase enzyme and discover how it blows up Nitrogen.
Sources are cited in this ever-growing Twitter thread: bit.ly/nitrogenasesources
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All music is by Jeremy Blake( / redmeansrecording , released on the CZcams Audio Library.
Intro music: Let's Go Home (bit.ly/rmrlgh)
Outro music: Lost and Found (bit.ly/rmrlnf)
The style of this video was largely developed based on tutorials by Ben Marriot: (bit.ly/posterizethis)
Love this video! First time I'm watching your channel but my undergraduate thesis was on nitrogenase so I know a thing or two about i!
One interesting point you didn't mention is that nitrogenases are very sensitive to oxygen. Kinda raises an interesting evolutionary question of the exact timing of water splitting and nitrogen fixing evolving, as well as the apparent paradox of some cyanobacteria being able to do both!
Also lots of different ways to protect nitrogenase from oxygen, thick cell walls, fast respiration keep the cell anoxic, groovy terminal oxidases that use up any oxygen left around, and some cool proteins called FeSIIs that bind nitrogenase and protect it!
Yea if I had my way--I would have done a 30 minute video talking about the oxygen sensitivity and the weird connections between nitrogen fixing and the Great Oxygenation Event. Not only that--but looking into how RuBisCo is sensitive to oxygen too. But hey--I gotta appease the algorithm gods for now. Almost certainly going to do a follow up video sometime this year!
Also some legumes uses leghaemoglobin to scavange O2.
@@Dr.Zubair Ohhhh this is another good one--thanks for putting this here!
They is a hydrogenase complex that also exist for protecting the nitrogenase from being sensitive to oxygen.. but maybe not well studied yet.
@@Clockworkbio please make longer videos can't speak for others but I certainly will watch them.
You'll have to produce another video about "nitroplasts" -- newly discovered organelles that fix nitrogen.
turns out that before life came about, volcanoes spewing massive amounts of ash into air, causes thousands of lightning strikes, that fixes a good amount of nitrogen into surrounding soil
I sat here for 8 minutes listening about nitrogen. Incredible.
Buddy just you wait until you find out how long I sat here animating about nitrogen.
Such quality content for only 1.2k subscribers?? I was shocked when I realized that it wasn't 1.2 million. This channel will age like fine wine. Keep up the good work :))
Thanks so much! Everyone's gotta start somewhere, right? Feel free to share this wherever if you want to help get us to those millions!
Hi, I'm a PhD student in structural biology. I want to say that these videos are phenomenal.
They're an excellent balance between effective communicarion and complexity of these topics, with amazing visuals.
I would love to collaborate on amino acids and homochirality!
Oh hellllll yes--expect me to hit you up as I keep establishing a group of folks I reach out to! My main goal here is to write and animate really good 'bait' so more STEM students end up getting as far as you have. Thank you so much!
@@Clockworkbioplease do it, I guess the World needs more of this Wonder, sharing this marvelous knowledge.
Thanks, thanks for all of Your contribution
vlogbrothers train, here!
Man this guy really doesn't get enough views!
Choo choo the views are going up
@@VidaxTheDragonMage yea give me a minute! I'll take not enough views if it means a JOHN GREEN shout out! Literally still in a state of shock over here.
More so the vlogbrothers centipede
Found it in browsing while watching a vlogbrothers video.
Here from Vlogbrothers. Your channel's bout to blow up, like it rightfully should.
One of the reasons Earth is so weird is because of all the dinitrogen and dioxygen in the atmosphere. The air reeks of cyanobacteria farts.
Elemental nitrogen isn't that weird. It's more common than any nitrogen-containing compound in the universe.
John Green sent me, I study Biotechnology in Germany and already love your content!
I love the simplified yet still complex drawings. It is so cool
thanks so much! We have such good research on the structure of proteins like these that they practically draw themselves. Im real glad the aesthetic works out!
I would also like to point out that your username/ profile pic combo is really solid!
Great video, we need more people to understand biochemistry is really interesting. Looking forward to the next video.
Thanks so much! Love what you're doing on your channel too! That lead iodate precipitate reaction was my favorite demo back in my teaching dasy!
I want to thank John Greene for recommending this page. I look forward to seeing new videos get added...I think they really add something that is helpful to understanding the physical nature of the bio-chemical world of our cells.
Welcome aboard! Thanks so much for your time!
Too bad you haven't put any videos out in a while. I just found your videos and I really enjoy them
Awwww yeahhhh, science for breakfast.
Hell yea fellow west-hemisphere-er!
@@Clockworkbio This comment chain reminded me of an ancient Simpsons clip (QqLGAtvnMLU)
I didn’t know i liked biochemistry. Thanks!
wow, amazing quality, well done
Thanks so much for your continued support! Working real hard to keep making these better and better for everyone!
Thank you for contributing to opening my eyes to the wonders of life. I have shared your channel with my friends, you deserve so much more attention.
I love these videos, no one makes higher level content like this that gets past the basics. As a chem. engr. who minored in biochemistry and loves "life chemistry" these are absolutely great
Somehow the music works perfectly, I would think the style, especially with words, would be distracting but the way its done, the levels and freq settings, actually stimulates things without being overbearing, its relaxing in a quasi active way.
Dude I immediately subscribed to your channel after your ATP video. I like the molecular science of biochemistry. I just love every science that explains how things work.
He didn't explain why hydrogen combines with nitrogen in this enzyme. This is the danger of science - it substitutes intrigue for explanation.
I just found your channel, your videos are AMAZING, I am completely shocked at how this content isn't with many, many more views. I am very glad I found your channel!!
Its my first time watching your channel, like a doctoral student, your video give precise information about nitrogenasa activity, and will help me to understand better the new topic of my research, thank you for made this content...
Excellent! I'm so happy I heard about your channel from vlogbrothers.
Your voice lies somewhere on the spectrum between the Green brothers and Pikasprey, and im here for it.
Kudos for the in-depth presentation, subscribed! 👏Biochemistry is indeed a fascinating topic. I started studying biology this spring out of curiosity, and this is one of the most interesting avenues for sure - learning of the intricate chemical processes that enable life. I like that you took the time to ponder the (perhaps intrinsic) "terra-forming" aspect of life, it's something I have also thought a lot about lately
New subscriber here. I love your videos! The animations and explanations are superb. Totally up my alley
My great grandpa did a lot of work on nitrogen fixation
Was he a diazotroph?
Was he a nazi?
Here from john greene...i love your work...I have been for a lookout for such a channel . (suscribed!)
Came here from the latest vlogbrothers video. So glad I did. Love this ❤️
Neat stuff to say the least...thankz for sharing❤
Can't believe I waited this long to watch this video. It's awesome, man!
Well honestly--I'm glad you waited so you had the bandwidth to get that KILLER Lambda video out! VERY worth it!
I made a presentation on the Haber Bosch process in uni last semester, and it fascinated me how hard it is to break those 2 Sp hybrided nitrogens. Since then I've always dreamed of a modern industrial biochemistry process that would "farm" nitrogen fixing bacterias or even better with using a complex/enzymes that could do it and still resist rougher conditions !
Really awesome, love how you explain biochemistry
Thanks so much! As a sidebar--I really loved the VR experience you made on Prototaxites!
@@Clockworkbio thank you
I really appreciate your lecture on nitrogen fixation ❤❤
This video is truly amazing!
That's biochem! I'm glad you liked the video and I hope you explore more through the wonder of the life sciences!
I've been waiting for this video my whole life.
This is only the start. Can't wait to see what you have to say about what's coming!
This is a really cool channel you got here.
Hey this is a pretty neat comment you got here too!
I thought there are some plants that already have nitrogen fixation. Apparently these plants (I think they were clovers) can grow very near paths for that reason (paths have soil compacted together by the weight of people walking over it so there is no oxygen for nitrogen fixing bacteria)
EDIT: Since this got pinned I did a bit more research and the actual fixating is done by bacteria (Rhizobia bacteria) but they can only do this while in the roots of a clover. It is a symbiotic relationship but it means that effectively the clover can make its own nitrogen.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhizobia
Ah yes--this is why word choice is really important in science writing. The word I SHOULD have said is 'Crops.' There are plenty of plants that fix their own nitrogen--but we only rely so heavily on the haber process and industrial fertilizers because most of our crops can't fix their own nitrogen! Thanks for catching that! Im REALLY ANNOYED I made that oversight.
there are other plants that do it not just bacterias. in fact some of them are flowering plants and some of them I think are even food plants that we can eat. if you look up things like centropic agroforestry you will find that humans have known about planting different crops together so that they're different processes support each other and that includes nitrogen fixing plants
Just like the Electron Transport Chain and ATP Synthase Complex IV, there go those dang electrons and protons again ... ya' gotta' have 'em.
As a horticulture student I really love your explanations!! Keep goin!
Yes--but only because you asked!
This would have really helped me in 1990 in my biochem class.
Love studying nitrogenase - do a part II in-depth. What about using CRISPR tech to copy paste nitrogenase genes into all important plants that usually need nitrogen supplementation? Thanks.
This channel is next level..... I am a highly visual learner. If I can visualize the process, I can understand it very well. Lots of biological processes are hard to grasp without visualizing the chemistry. I'm more of a pure chemistry guy but also like pharmacology, and understanding cellular biology better is crucial when it comes to fully understanding those things.
He didn't explain why hydrogen combines with nitrogen in this enzyme!
here from vlogbrothers 😊 subscribed!
Thanks
Watching your photosynthesis and now this video, I think these mechanism makes way more explosives than we human even or can ever make.
Also wow, MoFe is really strong. I think that thing has to resist magnetic force stresses in all three axis. Idk how you found out the timeframe, but it's interesting to know how it compares to other reactions.
great quality
Glad I found this channel before it blew up, leaving my mark. This is the type of content I scavenge youtube for :D
A. I'm real glad you found me--
and
B. As someone who's always scavenging for new stuff on youtube, I feel you. Real glad I made the hunt worth it. Thanks so much for all the comments!
(Ten thousand years later)
Some weird creature: "We can exist just because someone made all this plastic. We thank thee."
Yo how do you edit videos like these? Insane!!
The proteins practically draw themselves! Science alone is beautiful--and then i just plug it all into after effects.
bro how do you only have 10k subscribers
anyways you just gained one
It's about time I started actually understanding what is happening to allow us to live as we do.
this channel is underrated as hell,
- here from Hank
Hmm might be able to do this in a lab by making molybdenum doped iron sulfide quantum dots using electricity, water,, an organic acid as a proton donor, and light within the plasmonic resonance band of the nanoparticles to do the actual cracking of the N2 tripple bond. The light would need to be near 460nm or less so the particle size of the catalyst would need to be very small. The actual fixing reaction would occur at the cathode side of the cell. ❤
Will you do a video (or series) on your progress?
Can anyone please explain what's the use of molybdenum here? Is it just to take the elections? Then where do the electrons bombarded on molybdenum go after this process has finished?
here, before this channel blows up!!!
Give me a minute--I'm working on it! Feel free to share this wherever you can to help that process!
This channel is gonna be huge
I mean, you never know.
I’m so glad I ran into this channel. we are in the early morning of the golden age of biotechnology and nitrogen. Fixation has been the holy Grail for about the past hundred years. I’m getting excited I think we are close to learning the whole process What an incredibly important discovery that will be!
I’m keeping a watchful eye on corporations, like deep branch, and Novo nutrients
😅
People should be dancing on the streets already because Tobias
Tobias Erb has synthesized sugar from carbon dioxide at a much higher rate than any plant can produce it. In the past four years. The Chinese chemists Cai, Sun and Mu Have synthesized starch from carbon dioxide at a much higher rate than plants can produce it
So this opens the question : Will we be able to do nitrogen fixation as a low temperature low pressure chemical process without reliance on plants?
Will we be able to do protein synthesis from carbon dioxide?
Such a process allows us to find a use for a greenhouse gas and provides human nutrition, without dependence on seasons, weather, or the mechanics of farming, land water, and all the related chemistry of insecticides, pesticides, herbicides, and there many problems
Speed of production will be the main issue
AI deep mind and protein folding the holy grale of chemistry! A really cool thing i ran into is a place in Mexico call Oaxaca theres a little village where they have one of the most life changing plants in human history is growing down there. Its a variety of corn that makes its own Nitrogen by pulling it straight out of the air with these little fingers at the base of the plant as N2 is floating around it grabs it adds an extra hydrogen and it condenses off the corn plant and drips directly to the ground.
Love it🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
Great vid, great channel. Keep it up. - The legume squad. 🍀
Oh no you edited this before I had a chance to respond to your second comment! I wanted to say you didn't need to delete that earlier comment! Science writing is ALL about precision--and I genuinely appreciate it and love it when folks roast me for inaccuracies. Your comment was completely fair game. I got lazy as a writer when I put that sentence out--especially when a more accurate line would have been "So we can make MORE crops that fix their own nitrogen." Instead of just "plants lol." Im sorry I made you feel like that ribbing was unwelcome--I genuinely feel bad for how bogus that line was!
@@Clockworkbio That first comment served its purpose. After it became clear you already knew (had I read other posts I also would have known) the phrase could have been better, it lost its need to exist. I really enjoyed your response to my comment because I could picture you reading the same thing for the n th time and coming up with the picture of a squad (firing squad?) of legume-abiding people, reminding you of that little mistake. I enjoyed so much that I kept it in my new post as an inside joke (and I want you to know that it is a joke) and that you'll see more clovers in your comments from now on. 😄🍀 Again, thanks for the work. One thing is to read Nick Lane's books, and another is to be able to visualize his descriptions with your help. Cheers.
Life went ahead by using alternative reactions and chemical sources. In this case abiotically formed urea or urea formed in protocells could break down to CO2 and NH3 by the action of an inorganic or organic catalyst with urease activity. A new book " From Chemistry to Life on Earth by Austin Macauley Publishers due to be published on June 21 2024 spells out the evolution of the genetic code and the ribosome as well as the cell in general using 290references.
I’d image the nitrogen fixing enzyme or components thereof are very ancient then. Recently I think I saw a video about a component of the ribosome that has not changed on billions of years. I can’t remember how they asserted its age. That is a function of *my* age, lol.
why this channel is so underated?
I mean, I've only been making videos for a year. With the amount of nice people saying this many nice things so quickly--I think the channel is rated exactly where it should be. Growth takes time--especially these days!
I love the video (and the channel), but I have to say, I don’t understand the question posed in this one - “did the world make life or did life make the world?” I feel like the answer is a resounding “no” (i.e. neither). Because, I mean, quite obviously life did not make the world - the world had to exist before life could form on it. At the same time, the world didn’t “make” life so much as it provided the necessary ingredients and resources. Nothing really “made” life, per se, at least in my perspective - life is a process, after all; not a tangible or concrete “thing.”
So obvious I read about it all the time but not many people know
"EVOLUTION TOOK ITS COURSE IN A... SUDDENLY~" yah~ very sudden indeed... ahahaha
Nitrogen isn’t broken, it doesn’t need fixing.
"And then a so and so molecule comes around."
How do you make such amazing animation ?
The best part about being a science animator is that the research itself is so beautiful! For the past 100 years--scientists have been determining bond angles and doing X-ray crystallography to discover the structure of all these proteins. All I have to do is go in, shave off a few details so it works in 2d--and then present the science as accurately as youtube will allow!
I use the Protein Data Bank as my primary visual reference--and then I plug everything into Adobe Ilustrator and After Effects to stylize it all. It's a lot of work--but I hope it helps get people excited about Biochem! Not enough people are talking about this incredible branch of the life sciences
"did the world make life or did life make world" quote, had the same energy as "are you the stongest because youre satrou gojo, or are you satrou Gojo because youre the stongest"
Your bloody amazing mate. Can you forward me information on softwares that allow us to create moving animation diagrams... I'll do my research but I need help I'll like, share, comment and subscribe now. Bless
Great video! I've got a question: you mention that the atp binds to the Fe protein, and the electrons move from Fe to MoFe. That broke my brain. How can a protein conduct electrons??? I've only taken one semester of organic chemistry, but I thought there was a rule that electrons couldn't just move through carbon.
Writing this out and thinking about metal has kind of (Kind of!) given me a hypothesis, so confirm or deny me if I'm wrong, but does it direct these electrons by creating charge gradients influenced by polarity? If so: THATS AWESOME!
Thanks for a great video! vlogbrothers sent me, you deserve more views!!!
Well this is the insane part--becuase it's the Fe and S clusters between these two proteins doing the conducting (right?)
Wherever you've got the most insane chemistry--there's at least SOME metal hanging out!
Im gonna reply to this again once I go through my papers to make sure I don't point you in the right direction!
@@Clockworkbio Right like in chlorophyll and hemoglobin! so the iron is like pulling the electrons from the ATP through the organics?? Dude I'm fascinated. what's the sulfur doing??? is it altering iron in some way? like pulling it's electrons away so the Iron wants more electrons? cause I know sulfur can handle a ridiculous amount of electrons!
@@VidaxTheDragonMage Sulfur (sulfide) makes the whole thing work. It stabilizes the iron and gives it a 'handle' for the protein to hold on to. Without the sulfur, the iron would just rust (cells are generally wet).
Iron isn't able to pull electrons from afar. If they aren't just 'dumped' directly at the active site, they would have to be conducted, either by an FeS bridge or by an organic conductor (e.g. carotene).
Also, I'm not a biochemist, but I don't think the electrons are provided by ATP. That's usually the job of NAD(H) or something similar.
John Greene sent me here. Subbed.
Technically, John Green sent me here too. ( _Mayyyyybe_ a little more Hank than John. Don't tell anyone.) Genuinely unreal that he went and sent everyone else too. Really glad you're here--I'm working hard to make sure the quality stays up so your subscription isn't wasted!
That's one serious MoFe!
More please???!
Excellent analysis! This perspective is important. It's ironic that humans have demonized themselves, their technology and industry. Or is it? Our self hatred in the face of our wonderful science can only be attributed to enemy action.
please come back making videos
can we make hydrazine this way? instead of oil cracking?
This is a cool idea, but remember the energy isn't free. You still need the ATP (and the bits to make ATP, etc) for this to work.
The artwork is beautiful...
...BUT personally I find the low frame-rate animation style very uncomfortable to watch.
eg. at 6:55 the jittering of the molecules is really distracting. Every time they move slightly it feels very sudden and jumpy.
Now THIS is feedback I can USE! I've been experimenting with the wiggle and trying to dial it in to perfect. You can't draw atoms without some level of dynamics--and I went pretty wild with it back in the day. You have NO IDEA how valuable this is to help me balance this style. Thank you so much!
@@Clockworkbio I'm happy you take constructive feedback so well!
Actually, watching it back now, I think a better example would be at 10:34 where the blue background changes dramatically every second or so. I noticed this the most in your first video on blood chemistry where the background does this throughout most of the video, which I found really jarring.
Personally I would prefer 30/60fps smooth animations for everything or no animation at all on things that aren't moving. But that's just my opinion, thanks for making awesome videos on biochem :D
Peter Starr Northrop is my hero.
Im not sure who that is but Im sure they try very hard.
Yeah, tell us who he is?
And why do you think so?
@robertunderwood1011 the person who made the video I commented on 3 years ago.
I wonder what our atomic composition is on a dry basis
Can anyone tell me how these animations are made.
Do we have a evolutionary pathway for the development of nitrogenase? I gather it's a rare reaction in nature so must be a few awkward steps.
So technically you can make a GMO that pump out hydrazine with just sugar and air?? 😼
Wasn’t aware it was broken..
“Enough pressure for life to figure out it’s own way” to fix nitrogen. How, exactly, does a need (I.e. for nitrogen) put pressure on something without consciousness?
Do you need consciousness to breath oxygen? No, yet it happened through the Great Oxidation Event and life figures out its own way, in the larger sense, in intentionally, but by simply using any resources it could or dying and not being part of a gene pool.
You see all of this at the molecular level...I'm not being a troll I'm genuinely asking, how can you possibly suggest that all of this came about through chance and undirected chemistry??? Can you offer a single idea of how a useful protein or DNA/RNA polymer an form out of basic random chemistry? I just cant buy it, from my experience chemistry dont work this way and I see no way how it could happen personally...I was wondering your thoughts???
I was really, really thinking about this today (I have a lot to say so I tried to summarize). There's many people that say that Creationism is scientific, but there's a fundamental difference in how you would approach both.
When people ask "isn't that too complex to come from nothing?" the intention is to evoke a certain feeling on me, not to find an actual answer. That's a Divinity Fallacy, just because something is great, doesn't mean it needs a great cause, and since they're not really trying to find an answer, they'll stop as soon as they convince me that a creator is needed.
If Creationism was science, we would try our best to answer not only that question, but also the following related ones. If life is too complex to evolve, then anything more complex than it also cannot evolve, we have just set an upper limit here. So, is the creator more complex than the creation? If the answer is also yes, but the creator doesn't have a creator, then we have a logical problem.
Accepting that a creator can come from nothing, but life cannot, is simply moving the goalposts further and further untill people are satisfied, and we just end up with more unanswered questions that we began.
No real explanation here. It's not an explanation to say that bringing protons (whether as H or H+) next to nitrogen causes them to combine with the nitrogen. It clearly doesn't do that, because there is nitrogen, and H and H+ in the salty oceans, and no Nitrogen fixation occurs in the water of the oceans, or even in acid solutions which contain a lot of H+. The video left out the very explanation I was looking for: why does nitrogen combine with H or H+ in this enzyme?
Not sure we need to come up with anything, other than replace hydrogen production from methane to instead use hydrolysis and solar
Now if only archæa could develop a mechanism for generating virtual atoms of Fe Mo Cu etc ...
I came here from John Greene's shoutout.
"I didn't know it was broken"
Sorry, I'll stop. 😁
Two ways already so incredible and available for he most incredible gardening or farming to not need fertilizer or pesticides is a method called back to Eden film that is a documentary here on CZcams to farm the way nature already long has done on its own from the beginning of life and then there’s another nearly as great method called bio char found by scientist in Japan.
We are growing human population. We’re going to need to find ways to feed us that grow as fast as we do
@@robertunderwood1011
Yea, and this does it. The yield is much greater, much sweeter and much more nutritious and healing.
This enzyme are really energy consuming, just to much energy to split one nitrogen, It seem they not easier way for plants or living organisms to fix nitrogen.. But this enzyme can help plants to self fertilized themselves..
MoFe Balls🤪
I can’t believe I didn’t think of this one. Got wrecked.
Oh my God,the world is gonna be just fine with everything we are doing....we mite not be but the world will be...we won't be, not from climate change but from nuclear war
So, we are going to talk about nitroplast or not?
I do on instagram!
😍😍😍😍🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
AMAZING
I enjoyed this however I would strongly disagree that 78% Nitrogen is useless for life. You don't want a 100% or even 70% Oxygen atmosphere, that would be a disaster, everything would constantly oxidize and go up in flames, not to mention all the radicals that would be formed and mess with our biology... Therefore having an huge amount of an inert gas in the atmosphere is actually quite useful.