NAUTILUS EDUCATION | BETA PRODUCT Nitrogen: Your natural curls The next time you brush your hair, think of the nitrog- Every flash of lightning and every automotive spark enous waste that helped create it. All of your proteins, plug emits a puff of nitrogen oxide, which can dissolve including hair keratin, contain formerly airborne into raindrops and fall to earth as a form of fertilizer, nitrogen atoms. But the nitrogen in air is biologically again finding its way into food webs through plants. inert. For nitrogen to become a component of your But most of the nitrogen in modern foods comes from hair, it has to be converted into a more accessible form. urea and ammonium nitrate fertilizers artificially fixed Nitrogen-fixing bacteria is one way that can happen. by industrial processes. In ages past, the nitrogen in They live among the roots of beans, peas, and other human hair came mainly from bacterial waste and legumes, consuming atmospheric nitrogen and releas- lightning. But today, unless you eat a strictly organ- ing it as ammonia, a kind of microbial manure that ic diet, you run your hairbrush through nitrogenous fertilizes soil in which plants grow. When you eat a frameworks that are mostly of human origin. plant, you consume formerly atmospheric nitrogen. eo ee < ¥ . 8 ue Toa ee a xed Se SO) 7) a. —_ =; ZF aye eke a y . : ae 7 s ‘ z E Be es Lynas | ea, Cateye eer a me ad a 2 ae \ \ Reo “Fs Face’ = = a A a LY aa eet Tee Os aa Yo= a _ ay oe ; it : a |, ase Pen. es Ay ey <\ . “aa i TEAS: oe ey SS 7’ Te | } Mg Lez HES Sri es a Ra hy Hes herd Vint / BS WS ae, tLe” ee SEA 9, | v e = = oa aS ee CF”, : \ : WaQr “Ses,” eg eS ae AY a Bi. ren ye “eh od -/ - 4 ~ as wee os d . Pp : Cen ees oe a fe a & Bis a Sys ‘ ) a A te Seat oe fet br be Ge hie +a eamet i J - J ay MEE a eis Nee | fees ae: HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_015480