Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with oxygen

What does a hospital do with a truck of liquid oxygen?

Amanda B — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 19:28:27 -0800

What is the hospital doing with a truck of "oxygen refrigerated liquid"? I live next door to a large hospital. Every Saturday evening, a large truck labeled "oxygen refrigerated liquid" pulls up, hooks up some tubes and makes a LOT of noise (a loud sort of rumbling noise). It appears that they are flooding a hallway with this stuff - it seeps out in clouds from the open door.

When they finish, you can hear them hitting the tubes to disconnect them, since they've frozen to... something. There's also a sound that could be described as a hissing or water running through pipes.

So all this leads my boyfriend and I to wonder: are they freezing bodies? Storing the oxygen? Preventing a zombie uprising?

Can anyone explain what exactly they are doing? Any guesses?

Here are some pictures of the mysterious operation taken from my apartment window:
One.
Two.

Latency problems using Oxygen keyboard to input into Sibelius 4

Lotto — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 11:44:39 -0800

How can I fix a latency problem with a Oxygen8 v2 midi controller keyboard inputting into Sibelius 4? I've just become the proud owner of a shiny Oxygen 8 V2 midi controller, which I primarily want to use for recording into Sibelius 4.

When not recording I can play notes in and they come up instantly but when I try to record in 'flexi-time' there is a significant lag between my pressing the key and the computer recognising it, which obviously leads to massive accuracy problems. I'm aware that there are ways round this in terms of different input methods but I'd quite like to fix it.

I'm running XP and am computer-literate enough to be able to follow instructions/find more information if you show me where to look but not computer-literate to sort this out on my own!

Thanks!

Breathe your oxygen Junior - it'll make you grown up big and strong...

twine42 — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 20:27:33 -0800

All the big organisms on the planet need a healthy supply or oxygen, yet there are a myriad organisms at the other end of the scale that either ignore oxygen or are actively averse to it. How come none of our large scale creatures have come from this anaerobic stock? [ Obviously, the ones that find oxygen poisonous would find life in the open ocean or on dry land rather tricky. But why did the oxygen suckers manage to make it to a larger scale when those that didn't give a damn about oxygen stayed on the microscopic scales? ]

The Missing Planimal

DU — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 06:45:18 -0800

Why are there no species that implement both halves of the photosynthesis/respiration cycle? It seems like it would be handy for an animal to have a photosynthetic capability, either naturally or as a symbiont. You wouldn't have to find food or stop to eliminate waste (as often), improving workplace productivity. Your exhalations, if you still had any, would be closer to the ambient air mixture, making detection harder for those species that do that (I'm looking at you, mosquitoes).

You could also imagine it evolving from the plant end of the spectrum. In fact, it would be easier, since plants already do both halves of the cycle but the respiration half is muted and part time. Why don't they go whole hog and get double the advantage? (One could argue that plants don't use a lot of energy, so why do it, but that seems backwards to me. If they have the energy available, wouldn't a species that DID do something with it prosper?)

It seems like there are so many advantages and yet it hasn't evolved even a single time higher than lichen. Why not? The only thing I can think of is that having the advantages of both means having the disadvantages of both. But there's no disadvantage to being able, but not required, to photosynthesize. You don't have to stand still or have leaves. Just have some chloroplasts in your skin (also protects you from UV!) and if you happen to be standing in the sun, use them.

Cheaper Portable Oxygen Concentrator?

alcopop — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 18:49:23 -0800

Where can I find a used/rebuilt Airsep Freestyle portable oxygen concentrator on the cheap? This machine ( the Airsep Freestyle portable oxygen concentrator ) is so new that there are few used/rebuilt units available, my grandfather's Medicare won't pay for it, and the new ones are around $4000, so we're looking for a cheaper one (at any price point). We need the exact style, as the doctor said that no other concentrators would work for my grandfather's needs. I figured that putting the question up to the hive mind might allow some different perspectives and a possible solution to this problem, so any help would be great. Any knowledge of where to find this machine even a little cheaper, used/new/rebuilt would really be a help.

Oxygen in a can??

mmf — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 20:02:39 -0800

Oxygen. In a can. At a convenience store. Would you try it? Why or why not? Is it safe, does it do any real good? Bonus points: Would it help migraine headaches?

Is breathing a weight-loss program?

Camofrog — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 09:57:29 -0800

Do we lose weight just by breathing? Since we breathe in O2 and breathe off CO2, it seems to me that we are losing carbon atoms like mad each time we breathe out. This assumes, of course, that for each O2 breathed in a CO2 is breathed out, a straight one-to-one exchange, and that's a huge assumption. Is it correct?

Need to find a pulse/ox monitor

dirtynumbangelboy — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 13:27:38 -0800

Pulse-Ox monitors (the little dealies that fit over your finger and measure oxygen saturation in the blood). Need to buy one for an asthmatic person. What are reputable brand names, places to order, etc? I'm in Canada, so shipping availability to Canada is essential (if ordered online), or local resources in Toronto.

M-Audio or E-mu cheapie 61-key USB MIDI controller?

stleric — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 13:42:38 -0800

I want a cheap 49 or 61 key USB MIDI keyboard for under $300. M-Audio Oxygen or E-mu Xboard? I'm looking for a USB MIDI keyboard for recording at home and playing out a bit (probably 61-key for also learning to play piano in the process) and for price and features' sake, I think I'm down to the Oxygen, and the E-mu Xboard (I've read of several accounts of 2-3 keys dying on Edirols after a year, and CMEs are more expensive, and allegedly partly made of plywood?).

While M-Audios seem to be the "default" brand for lower-end MIDI controllers, I hear a lot of people complaining about their products. I've read a lot of reviews talking about them seeming very plastic (I grew up with Casios, so from what I've tried of them, the M-Audios seem entirely tolerable), but the Oxygen 61 also has sliders, and buttons specifically for playing/stopping/rewinding tracks, which seem like they could come in handy. I've also read about people having driver issues with the Xboards, and I'm unsure to what degree I should or shouldn't be worried about that if I'm not using the E-mu software, and just sticking with MIDI functions in FL Studio. Nevertheless, if the Xboard does indeed feel better, and might last longer, it's a consideration. Any thoughts?

Breathe, breathe in the air...

Freedomboy — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 11:25:43 -0800

Not to start a fight but I am curious about this one...If the entire atmosphere is 100% and nitrogen is 89% and the inert gases are 0.9% and the rest is the O2 we breathe and more and more CO2 is being made [carbon burning made that is] from that O2 and not going back out of the system as released O2 will we see a drop in the amount of O2 we have to breathe? Does the actual % of the various gases get checked on by anyone? And would we see it first decline at higher altitudes or in the deaths of animals who need more O2 for their specific needs..........which ones are the mine canaries here?

traveling with oxygen

D-ten — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 20:44:49 -0800

I'm working to transfer a person on oxygen from San Diego to Oregon. It's a long trip and this person is mostly wheelchair bound. Overexertion causes breathlessness and anxiety. We are trying to effect this ourselves and the oxygen is proving the most problematic. At 12 liter flow, getting enough oxygen is a major technical issue if moving by vehicle. We're talking a 3 day trip with a stop halfway in Watsonville for a day. The problem I'm having is getting correct information on my alternatives in a reasonable amount of time. I'm thinking that perhaps some Mefites are familiar with this problem, or know of resources I could consult.
We could transfer using air ambulance, or ground ambulance but that's extremely expensive.
Train is a possibility, especially the sleeper bedrooms, but there is a limit on what types of oxygen equipment can be brought on board.
By vehicle, I have considered using an oxygen concentrator running off an inverter, or using liquid oxygen tanks. The concentrator would be noisy and hot inside the car and if it stopped running, that would be a big problem.
The liquid O tanks apparently are so bulky that they wouldn't fit in the car. I'm still researching that last one.
I'm hopeful that this post may generate some avenues that I haven't considered yet. I'm talking to oxygen providers daily getting things worked out but at the moment can't see a really bullet-proof way of doing this without using some kind of medical transport service.

How many plants do I need to breath?

lucasks — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 22:55:47 -0800

Given an airtight room with bright enough lights to fuel photosynthesis, how many plants would it take to provide an average person, at rest, with sufficient oxygen (assuming it is possible at all). I have tried to google around for resting heart rate O2 consumption and plant / photosynthesis O2 production, but while I can find equations they don't seem to suggest rates. This is just idle curiousity but I really want to know. Thanks in advance.

Is there a mechanic in the house?

donpedro — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 11:14:36 -0800

I drove for about nine months on a bad oxygen sensor. Will my car suffer any long-term ill effects? The check-engine light (not the emergency one) came on in January. I called a mechanic, who said something was most likely wrong with the emissisions system, such as a bad O2 sensor, but nothing to keep me from driving it. So I didn't get it fixed, and went on my planned road trip that weekend.

Nine months later (yesterday), I finally took care of it. Yup, the O2 sensor. The car now drives noticeably better, with much improved pickup. I hadn't even realized the drop in performance, but now that it's fixed, Wow: Like night and day.

But -- and I was too ashamed to ask my mechanic this -- I'm a little worried about whether the car may have suffered any lasting damage due to my not attending to the problem for so long. I don't drive very much -- I estimate I put about 4K miles on it during the period in question. Should I worry?