In 1772, Daniel Rutherford, a chemist and physician discovered nitrogen when he removed oxygen and carbondioxide from air. He demonstrated that the residual gas from this reaction would not support living organisms or combustion. Carl Wilhelm Scheele and Joseph Priestley were two other scientists working on the same problem, and they called nitrogen “burnt” air or air without oxygen. In 1786, Antoine Laurent de Lavoisier called nitrogen “azote” meaning “lifeless”. All these were based on the observation that nitrogen could not support life on its own.
But nitrogen is extremely essential to life on Earth. It makes up our proteins and can be found in all living systems. Nitrogen gas constitutes 78 per cent of Earth’s air, whereas the atmosphere of Mars only has 2.6 per cent of it. Nitrogen compounds can be found in organic materials, foods, fertilizers, explosives and poisons. Although it makes up a big part of compounds, in excess, nitrogen is harmful to the environment. Nitrogen is named after the Greek word nitre.
Nitrogen is the fifth most abundant element in the universe. It is colourless, odourless and does not mix with other elements easily.
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