Humans are obligate aerobic organisms that need air for life. The utmost importance of air for life has already been recognized thousands of years ago and is still evident in aspects of the ancient Greek medicine where blood was the humor associated with air. However, only a fraction, namely the ~20% of oxygen, constitutes the vital part from the air that we breeze. In the cell, oxygen is required for several enzymatic reactions and necessary to drive vital processes such as cellular respiration in which cells metabolize nutrients like sugars, proteins, or fat to obtain cellular energy in form of adenosine triphosphate (ATP).

中文翻译：

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我们呼吸的空气：从一般氧气感应原理的“高贵”发现到其临床应用。

人体是需要空气以维持生命的专性有氧生物。空气对生命的极端重要性已经在数千年前就被认识到了，并且在古希腊医学的某些方面仍然很明显，在血液中，血液是与空气有关的幽默。但是，只有一小部分，即约20％的氧气，构成了我们微风中至关重要的部分。在细胞中，氧气是多种酶促反应所必需的，也是驱动生命过程（例如细胞呼吸）所必需的，在该过程中，细胞以糖，蛋白质或脂肪的形式代谢营养物质，从而以三磷酸腺苷（ATP）的形式获得细胞能量。