Michael Swanwick's Periodic Table of Science Fiction

Nitrogen

14.0067

Nitrogen: An Introduction

Nitrogen is a colorless, odorless, tasteless gaseous element. It neither

burns nor supports combustion. It is relatively inactive, though it does

combine with oxygen and some active metals. It is a constituent of

ammonia, nitric acid, amino acids, and many fertilizers, dyes, and

explosives.

Roughly four-fifths of Earth's atmosphere is nitrogen. Its moderating

effect on the far more reactive oxygen is what makes life possible on

this planet. It is present in all living matter, chiefly in proteins, and

may therefore be considered essential to life. Nitrogen fixation is the

process of extracting free nitrogen from the air by combining it with

other elements, either by chemical means or by bacterial action.

Bacterial agents, called nitrogen fixers, are found in the nodules of

leguminous plants, such as alfalfa, peas, and soybeans.

There are many commercial means of nitrogen fixation. These include the

cyanamid process for producing ammonia, the arc process for nitric acid,

and the Haber process, in which ammonia is synthesized through direct

combination of nitrogen and hydrogen.

Elves and gnomes, working out of a factory complex in Trenton, New

Jersey, employ vast quantities of nitrogen in the daily generation of

night.

Whence the name.