Phosphorous Paradox and the Unsuspected Intrinsic Property of Human Beings to Dissociate the Water Molecule

Abstract

Phosphorous paradox means that this element is abundant on Earth, it is present inside of every cell of living things. However, is so scarce in the Universe. Phosphate, the most exploited form of phosphorous, is a vital constituent of fertilizer. Phosphate rock has emerged as a globally traded commodity linked to a diverse set of politically charged debates, ranging from environmental degradation and threats to human health to food security and agricultural sovereignty. Supposedly, life can multiply until all the phosphorus is gone, and then there is an inexorable halt, which nothing can prevent (Asimov, Isaac). Phosphorus seems like a Life’s Bottleneck. It is so believed that Phosphorous (P) has been placed as a critical resource for the bioeconomy and for food security at the global scale. The biogeochemical P flow has been described as a “planetary boundary,” which, in parts of the world, has already been exceeded. However, our discovery about the unexpected intrinsic capacity of living beings to dissociate the water molecule breaks the ground. Thereby, the formation of Phosphorous requires the presence of Life.

1. Introduction

The purpose of this work is to concatenate the biochemical logic of the relatively recently discovered property of living entities to dissociate the molecule from water with the phosphorus paradox, as well as to present a novel method to efficiently manage the earth and water problems secondary to excess of phosphates in different bodies of water, based on the human eye’s biology.

Theoretically, for phosphorus, there is no substitute, there is no element that can replace it [1]. Alfalfa can germinate and grow in agricultural soil containing 0.1% phosphorus, while the plant only contains 0.7% phosphorus in its structure. The structure/activity ratio of phosphorus makes it an important and irreplaceable element for plant growth. To date, there is no known way—natural or synthetic—that can carry out the functions that phosphorus performs. Curiously, in breast-fed infants, the phosphorus such as iron intake is very low [2].

Few centuries ago, phosphorus was chemically identified; however, throughout history, phosphorus has been used in the form of crop residues and manure that were dispersed in agricultural fields. This ancient practice continues so far, but an increase in phosphorus mining throughout the twentieth century contributed, at least initially, to steadily rising agricultural yields, but in the long term, the fertility of agricultural soil is adversely affected. Fertilizers manufactured with high proportions of phosphorus, nitrogen, and potassium boost the plant growth to unprecedented levels, especially in tropical soils that are poor in these constituents [3] although for some reason, nature so provides, and the proof is that these fertilizers, in the long run, contribute to impoverish yields.

In the 1960s, manufactured fertilizer was gearing up farmers to feed more people than the world had ever known; thus, harvests were ahead of a growing population. and although the number of people with malnutrition has decreased, the current figure of 925 million remains worrying [4].

Global production of phosphate rock is now nearly 13 times what it was in 1930s [5]. It has virtues as a key elemental the biochemical of life, but also phosphorus has also earned a well-deserved reputation as a persistent pollutant. In rural areas, unfortunately, phosphates regularly flow into receiving water as runoff from “fertilized” agricultural fields, [6] and in urban areas from sewage sources as a major constituent of human excreta flushed down toilets, as a result of indiscriminate use of phosphates as additives in industrialized food and drinks. Phosphorus can excessively boost local nutrient levels, promoting abnormal algal blooms in the lakes and rivers where it concentrates—a process called eutrophication [7].

Supposedly, this excessive algal growth can eventually lower oxygen levels in the water to the point where some fish species can no longer survive. But the reality is quite the opposite, as algal blooms are triggered precisely by low levels of dissolved oxygen caused in turn by high levels of phosphates. On the other hand, low levels of dissolved oxygen tend to affect marine species until eventually they disappear, regardless of whether there is an overpopulation of algae.

2. After all, for the prokaryotic and eukaryotic cell, water is not indivisible

The human eye has 3–4 ml of water that is not rechanged during all the life span of the individual. To practical aims, this is stagnant water; however, this water has adequate dissolved oxygen levels and rarely goes on acidity. We found the biochemical mechanism that Mother Nature uses to maintain the physicochemical characteristics of this eye’s stagnant water in good shape for decades [8].

Melanin splits something previously thought to be unsplittable, and we’ll never look at light, water, Universe, human being, and living things in the same way. The dissociation of the water molecule has transcendent industrial applications, some of them are exemplified in Figures 1–12.

Figure 1.

QBLOCK™, a novel material developed based on human eye’s Biology, which also dissociates the water molecules. At left, the container with the presence of QBLOCKS™ explains the abundance of bubbles. The container at right has no QBLOCK™, thereby it has no “bubbles” of oxygen. To date, 5 months later, the bubbles remain in the container with QBLOCK™.

Figure 2.

In experiments where QBLOCK™ is applied to offshore sand, after some months, this soil can support plants to grow up. Photograph shows sprouts of a mango seed after 8 days.

Figure 3.

After 2 weeks, the sprouts of mango seed. The QBLOCK™ was placed earlier, 14 months ago, and is deep in the offshore sand. Mango seeds were placed 2 weeks ago.

Figure 4.

Sprouts of mango seed after 16 days. Notice the QBLOCK™ on the surface.

Figure 5.

Mango and avocado sprouts.

Figure 6.

Avocado sprout in a soil treated con QBLOCK™.

Figure 7.

Mango sprouts, after 21 days. Notice the QBLOCK™ on the soil surface (and deep too).

Figure 8.

The presence of QBLOCK™ even in offshore sand, allowed mango seeds germination (right). At center avocado, right: mango sprouts. QBLOCK™ was used in the three specimens.

Figure 9.

Left: mango. Right: tamarindo.

Figure 10.

The presence of larvae (yellow arrow) in water contaminated with carbon is unusual, due to formaldehyde formation (CH₂O), which is toxic. But in the presence of our QBLOCK™, the history is different, beginning with the rise of dissolved oxygen levels, which support life.

Figure 11.

In the flask with residues of grains (peanut), but with no other carbon source, only chlorophyll developed on the upper surface of QBLOCK™.

Figure 12.

In a closed bottle, simulating a closed system, the presence of QBLOCK™ immersed in the soil sample allows the development of organic carbon. The bottle has been closed since 2016, and a moderate amount of water was added one time only: at the very beginning of the experiment. Photograph taken in January 2022.

Our finding that glucose—and thereafter meals in general—is just the building block of human being but not source of energy because light can be absorbed directly by living things, which suppose their capacity to transform light power into chemical energy in a previously unimaginable split form—like plants; means substantive advances in the fundamental understanding of light and how it behaves inside living things. Thereby, human body is not exception [9].

This is a major paradigm change of how we understand the interaction between light and living things in a way that was not believed to be possible. Not only did we find a new biochemical reaction entity, but it was one that nobody believed could exist [10].

Phosphorus, a 5A element with atomic weight of 31, comprises just over 0.6% of the composition by weight of plants and animals [11]. A ubiquitous mineral on Earth, but not in the universe, and the second most abundant mineral in the human body, phosphorus represents ∼1% of total body weight [12]. Common chemical linkage is in the form of phosphate ester and phosphoanhydride. The element phosphorus is a key element in organic molecules overall in those involved in a wide variety of critical cellular functions. These include the biochemical temperature regulation through the hydrolysis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), maintenance of genetic information with nucleotides DNA and RNA, intracellular signaling via cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP), and membrane structural integrity via glycerophospholipids. But we keep in mind that energy, defined as everything that produces change, is not only needed to function, to move, reproduce, think, etc., but it is also required even to preserve the shape, the form, and in the case of the molecules and membranes, to continue as such.

The metabolism of inorganic phosphorus (Pi) is acting as a weak acid. At physiological pH of 7.4, Pi exists as both H₂PO₄⁽⁻⁾ and HPO₄⁽²⁻⁾ and acts as an extracellular fluid (ECF) buffer. Pi is the form transported across tissue compartments and cells. Eighty percent of the body phosphorus is present in the form of calcium phosphate crystals (apatite) that confer hardness to the bone and teeth and function as the major phosphorus reservoir. The remainder is present in soft tissues and ECF. The phosphorus coming from meals and liquids, comprising both inorganic and organic forms, is digested in the upper gastrointestinal tract.

During growth, there is net accretion of phosphorus, and with aging, net loss of phosphorus occurs, in similar way and at the same rate that the capacity of our body to dissociate the water molecule declines. Kidney is the main regulator of ECF Pi concentration by virtue of having a tubular maximum resorptive capacity for Pi (TmPi) that is under close endocrine control that means energy expenditure. It is also the main excretory pathway for Pi surplus, which is passed in urine, thereby requiring energy coming from water dissociation. At a dietary phosphorus of 1400 mg, 1120 mg is absorbed (energy required) in the upper intestine to the ECF, 210 mg returned to the intestine by endogenous secretion, processes all that need energy, resulting in 910 mg net Pi absorption and 490 mg fecal excretion. In the bone, 180 mg is deposited by bone formation and 180 mg return to the ECF by bone resorption, and all involved processes need power. In the kidney, 5040 mg is filtered at the glomerulus and 4130 mg return to the ECF by tubular reabsorption with 910 mg excreted in the urine. In soft tissue, Pi is exchanged between ECF and cells. Let us remember that any chemical reaction, any process, no matter how small, requires energy.

Bioavailability of phosphorus also varies depending on the source. Plant protein sources generally have the lowest bioavailability, followed by animal protein sources, then inorganic phosphate additives with the highest bioavailability. Inorganic phosphates have been nearly 100% bioavailable [13]. Phosphorus from plant-based sources remains less bioavailable than animal sources and animal sources less bioavailable compared with inorganic phosphate additives.

The growing Phosphorous “paradox” (the simultaneous overabundance of P impairing water quality and the prospect of global scarcity of P for future agricultural production) has stimulated new convergence between P-security and water-quality research agenda [14]. In the Universe, phosphorous is notably scarce.

Both in agricultural and urban systems, the fragmentation of the P cycle has implications even for water-quality impairment [15]. A sufficient (adequate for the purpose) and efficient (performing with the least waste of effort) utilization of P may offer a great reduction potential in animal husbandry and crop production [16].

The management of animals plays a key role in reducing P inputs to soils and, consequently, P losses from arable lands and grasslands. Because of the regional concentration of animal husbandry, improved diets with less P content may be most urgently required and effective in regions with high stocking density.

Genes involved in pathways relevant for P utilization were differentially expressed due to variable P supply. Phosphorous fluxes through various process and ecosystems along which originally mined and processed P is diluted and distributed over increasingly large parts of the terrestrial and aquatic environments.

Animals fed with low-P diets showed attempts to maintain mineral homoeostasis via intrinsic mechanisms [17]. Pyrophosphatase, an enzyme, could completely exchange the oxygen atoms within the phosphate ion with oxygen atoms originally within water molecules [18]; however, water does not release oxygen for free, so it is necessary to dissociate the molecule (of water) first. The isotopic composition of oxygen (proportion of Oxygen 16 to Oxygen 18) within phosphate ions in plant leaves was different from that observed in the solution delivering P to the plant [19], which suggests that inside living things, atomic nucleus tends to grow, but it does not happen in a flask solution. The difference is the available energy inside the living thing can impel protons (H⁺) with enough and adequate force, so the atomic nucleus of oxygen and other elements increase their atomic number.

With the adequate surroundings, and a precise and enough energy, it is possible to create the main elements of periodic table contained in living things. Supposedly, only a synchrotron can impel subatomic particles with enough speed to be included in atomic nuclei. However, Nature can do it inside cells of living things.

For instance, Hydrogen has an atomic number of 1 and atomic mass of 1. Thereby Hydrogen has no neutrons. The difference between Carbon (6), Nitrogen (7), and Oxygen (8) is one and two protons, respectively.

The internal cellular environment has a relative abundance of Hydrogen and Oxygen (and energy) coming from water dissociation. Therefore, we can enlist Hydrogen, Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Sodium, Magnesium, Phosphorous, Sulfur, Chlorine, and Calcium as primary elements normally present in living things.

Now, we’ll enlist the same elements with the number of protons in their atomic nuclei. H (1), C (6), Nitrogen (7), O (8), Na (11), Mg (12), P (15), Sulfur (16), Cl (17), K (19), and Ca (20).

Notice that the difference between them is just one proton, in general terms. Thereby, the formation inside living things of Carbon con atomic mass of 14, and Oxygen con atomic mass of 18, means that atomic nuclei can grow inside living cells. After death, Carbon 14, and Oxygen 18, tends to fade gradually along thousands of years.

This is, the growth of atomic nuclei of Carbon and Oxygen can occur inside the cell, because water dissociation happens there, so protons and energy, the two key elements, are available. Furthermore, these transformations—in guarded proportions—can also occur between Na (11) and Mg (12; between P (15) and S (16); also, between Cl (17), K (19), and Ca (20).

It is possible that a certain degree of transmutation between these elements happens to adjust the requirements of the living beings, allowing them a better adaptation to their surroundings. Thereby, Life is not totally dependent on determined diet, it can hatch under diverse diet composition, because the human body can synthesize chemical elements—guarded proportions—and compensate for nutritional deficiencies in the environment at any given time.

In relation to the essential trace elements, we have Manganese (²⁵Mn), Iron (²⁵Fe), Cobalt (²⁶Cu), Nickel (²⁷Ni), Copper (²⁹Cu), and Zinc (³⁰Zn) as examples of chemical elements whose difference between them is a proton, that is: a hydrogen without electron, and the dissociation of water produces them—electrons—abundantly [20].

Supplements are not the answer, i.e.: the intake of calcium supplements in patients with osteoporosis makes their bones brittle.

2.1 Phosphorous

Remarkable abundance of phosphorous on Earth and its scarcity in the Universe suggest strongly that the P could be formed by living beings overall those in soil. Phosphorus is widely distributed in the global food supply, with milk and dairy being the greatest contributors followed by meat and poultry. Notice a strong relationship with living beings. Circadian fluctuations in some bioactive components and trace elements are suggested to transfer chronobiological information from mother to child to assist the development of the biological clock [21].

For dairy cows, mineral P supplementation of the feed is generally not necessary and might be needed only when fed with high amounts of corn products. This includes more precise prediction of the dietary P requirement and a better characterization of the availability of different P sources used in animal feed [22].

About nonruminants, much attention has recently been given to the variation in plant P sources, in particular phytate-P [23]. It has been known for about two decades that the use of the enzyme phytase as a feed additive can effectively increase phytate-P availability in pigs and poultry. However, enzymes do not make possible an impossible reaction.

Sophisticated analytical techniques such as stable isotope techniques (33-P, 18-O), NMR- and synchrotron-based spectroscopies are required for quantifying P cycles, fluxes, and dynamics in the soil and other environmental systems.

Measurement of the isotopic composition of oxygen within the phosphate ion can improve our understanding of P cycling in soil and plant systems [24]. Analyzing the isotopic composition of oxygen bound to P (δ¹⁸O-P) is, however, constrained by several analytical difficulties [25].

The scientific discussion on the identification of soil organic P forms—whether soils contain simple well-identifiable organic P forms or organic P in complex macromolecular, nonidentified structures—is continuing [26]. The cycles of the biogeochemically important nutrient elements C, N, and P are closely interlinked across environmental systems.

The difference between Silicium (14) and Phosphorous (15) is just one proton, and microorganisms in soil also can dissociate the molecule of water, thereby, inside them, there are available protons and energy. Neutrons form spontaneously.

The C-, N-, P-stoichiometry of soil organic matter was primarily controlled by soil properties rather than by the elemental stoichiometry of manure or fertilizer inputs [27]. Since 1998, in Northern Germany, organic P forms in soil did not correspond with the P forms in the organic fertilizers applied to the soil [28]. It is quite possible that living organisms inside soil make the difference, given the energy, protons, and oxygen available coming from water dissociation in analogue fashion to formation of ¹⁴ C and ¹⁸ O in living beings.

Although the study of C-, N-, and P ratios is needed to understand the long-term functioning of cropped soils, it must always be tied with valuation of elemental inputs and budgets, and the capability of soils to steady, modify, and form, even a subatomic level, the C-, N-, and P-containing compounds. The soil is way beyond to be inert.

The relative importance of P fluxes arising from soil organic matter (SOM) mineralization compared with fluxes from P desorption appears to be much larger in forest and grassland than in arable soils [29], which is understandable and expected because the intensive use of agrochemicals in arable soil, and not in forest and grassland, perturbed the astonishingly accurate dissociation of the water molecule, therefore the highly ordered generation and distribution of energy, protons, and oxygen are impoverished.

Factors such as wetting and drying cycles, green manure inputs, seasonal fluctuations, amount of light, pressure, temperature, moisture, and soil parent material also clearly affect organic P mineralization [29].

The application of microbial inoculants as so-called biofertilizers has often been described as a component of sustainable nutrient management. The main efforts in this field have focused on living beings, as fungi [30].

Considering the uncertainty and the costs of microbial inoculants in practical agriculture, the activation of native soil microorganisms by agronomic measures such as organic matter management and crop rotation could be a better approach to utilize benefits of microbes [31] measures that significantly diminishing the need and use of industrialized phosphorous.

Fertilizers manufactured with high proportions of phosphorus, nitrogen, and potassium boosted plant growth to unprecedented levels, especially in tropical soils that are poor in these constituents [3]. Although phosphorus is one of the most common elements on Earth, only a small percentage is available for human use [32]. Phosphorus is seldom credited for the decline in the number of undernourished people, but such progress would have been unthinkable without its dramatically expanded use in the form of phosphate-based fertilizer.

2.2 Toxicity of phosphorous in the environment

Phosphorus plays many roles in society today—both desired and undesired [33]. Phosphorus brings about a plentiful of different functions—on immeasurably dissimilar temporal and geographical balances: transporting split-second signals to the brain in the chemical ATP, or immobile as a Ca3 (PO4)2 molecule in apatite-rich phosphate rock that took tens of millions of years to form, expecting mining, or progressively being drawn up from soil solution by plant roots via chemical dissemination, or clearing from our bodies in a momentary drop of urine before being thinned by a flood of flush water to join other domestic and industry wastewater at a distant and pestilent treatment plant, poisoning water bodies as cyanobacteria, or simply cycling naturally between land, biota, and water without being perceived by most of the society [34].

Elevated P inputs can have severe long-term effects on freshwater and marine ecosystems, and large-scale efforts are needed to reduce P inputs from land. Eutrophication is still considered to be the most serious anthropogenic threat, for instance, in the dead zone of Baltic Sea [35]. The mitigation of eutrophication in freshwater, coastal, and marine systems requires a better understanding of mobilization and release of P from soil and catchments (soil-to-water transfers), P composition and cycling in water bodies, and measures to decrease P loss.

Despite its merits as an essential staff of life, phosphorus has also a role as quite persistent pollutant. In rural areas, with poor control of agrochemicals, it often flows into receiving water (ponds, lakes, rivers, etc.) as runoff from agricultural fields and in urban areas from dirt sources as a foremost component of human body waste flushed down toilets [36]. Phosphorus can excessively boost some type of biochemical reactions meanwhile turn down others, which finally seems as endorsing and abnormal algal blooms in the lakes, ponds, and rivers where it concentrates—eutrophication [37].

The misconception that disproportionate algal growth can in the long run lower oxygen levels in the water although first the levels of dissolved oxygen fall and then it is eutrophication, it is thought that some fish species cannot tolerate this DOL of less of 6 mg/l. Thereby, the explanation of this long-lasted mistake emerges after our discovery that both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells are phototrophs [38].

It has been demonstrated that the phosphate detergents emerging from municipal wastewater streams were a major driver of Lake Erie’s problem—excessive algal growth and mortality of some fish’s species [39].

Cadmium is a well-established renal, bone, and pulmonary toxicant that occurs naturally in phosphate rock deposits. Phosphate fertilizers are considered the main source of cadmium in agricultural soils [40].

In some river basins, P export now exceeds P inputs, which may result from the net mobilization of P pools accumulated during earlier decades [41], already reached a finite P-accumulation stage. Animal studies show that high inorganic phosphate feeding resulting in high serum phosphate promoted lung, skin, bladder, and prostate cancer [42].

Leaf senescence, or the final developmental stage of the leaf, means the transition from a photosynthetically active organ to the attenuation of said function and eventual death of the leaf. During senescence, essential nutrients sequestered in the leaf, such as phosphorus (P), are recycled, this is mobilized and transported to sink tissues, particularly expanding leaves and developing seeds. Phosphorus recovery is decisive, as it helps to ensure that previously acquired P is not lost to the environment, particularly under the naturally desirable occurring condition where most unfertilized soils contain low levels of soluble orthophosphate (Pi), the only form of P that roots can directly assimilate from the soil [43].

Phosphorus (P) is a key plant macronutrient, as it is a structural component of critical biomolecules involved in both temperature regulation processes, such as ATP and PPi, and in the development of key macromolecules such as nucleic acids and phospholipids. Thus, P is central to nearly all foremost metabolic processes in plants (and humans), including photosynthesis and respiration. Soluble orthophosphate (PO₄³⁻; Pi), which is the only form of plant-available P that roots can directly assimilate from the soil, is often highly limiting in the natural environment, prompting the widespread erroneous use of Pi-containing fertilizers in agriculture [44]. And we say wrong because the living entities that live in the clay can transmute the phosphorus from the silicon, because the difference between them is just one proton.

While fertilizers are seemingly effective in boosting harvest yields, only 15–30% of applied P is on average absorbed by crops in the year of its application [45]. The resulting Pi-runoff from fertilized fields leads to nutrient overloading of aquatic ecosystems, triggering toxic algal blooms and eutrophication of the affected waterways. Furthermore, the Pi contained within these fertilizers is manufactured from nonrenewable rock-phosphate reserves, which have been projected to be depleted within the next 80 years [35].

The use of fertilizers in agricultural practices may boost efficient crop growth but could consequently inhibit efficient Pi recycling and thus the overall P-use efficiency (PUE) [46]. Nearly half of the total P present within a healthy leaf exists within nucleic acids; of that, approximately 80% is represented by ribosomal RNA (rRNA).

The possibility of microorganisms in soil can synthesize ¹⁵P arising from ¹⁴Si opens an unexpected source of phosphorous in minute quantities but at the same time sufficient for the fundamental biochemical needs of life, both in plants and animals. The difference between them (¹⁵P and ¹⁴Si) is just one proton, and water dissociation provides enough protons, energy, and high-energy electrons. As it is expected, amount of Pi resulting from this “transmutation” of elements are small, such as ¹⁴C and ¹⁸O, which also formed—in small quantities—inside living things, and coherently, the plants metabolism is so efficient to recycling minute amounts of Pi.

Therefore, the fertility of the soil depends significantly on its oxygen content, so much so that the formation of clays depends on the presence of oxygen and therefore on the presence of life that generates it, rather than phosphorus in irrational quantities. If we restore the oxygen levels that the arable soil should contain, soil fertility would improve significantly. And even more so if we irrigate the crops with water with dissolved oxygen levels above 6 mg / L.

Enzymes do not make possible an impossible reaction, thereby, neither water dissociation nor transmutation from ¹⁴Si to ¹⁵P is a biochemical reaction that depends on enzymatic activity. Thereby, Pi acquisition from the soil is not an entirely passive process due to soil’s microorganisms being systems with capacities way beyond our abstraction capacity.

Zones that were found to have high heavy metal levels should be avoided to cultivate potatoes because potatoes tend to accumulate heavy metals notably higher than other types of plants. Soils that were found to be acidic traditionally should be treated with lime so that heavy metal uptake by plants via soil–plant pathway could be slowed; however, the increase of oxygen levels in the soil and the increase of pH through QBLOCK™ improve the root plant health and thereby the crops yield. It is important to protect groundwater resources in the region from heavy metal contamination especially in acidic zones [47].

Phosphate extraction increasingly generates more pollution and waste, requires more energy per nutrient value, and costs more to mine and to process [48]. The fluxes that we generate are larger than natural fluxes. This is no easy way to run a bio-geo-chemical cycle [49].

3. Discussion

First life originated in water, then glucose—the universal precursor—and thereafter phosphorus that plays important role in evolution of whole spectrum of life. Phosphorus constitutes integral part of nucleic acids and amino acids, which are carriers of the whole genetic information of evolution of life on this planet and building block in every form of life. Such is importance of element phosphorus. But now phosphorous is emerging hidden crisis before agricultural community and environmentalists of the world.

Phosphates are thermodynamically unstable while being kinetically stable [50]. ATP is kinetically stable under physiologic conditions [51]. Kornberg has estimated that eukaryotic cells contain on average 10⁹ molecules of ATP [52]. Theoretically, ≈2.5 ATPs are formed for each pair of electrons sent by an NADH molecule down the respiratory chain and that ≈80 kg of ATP is turned over in a day per adult male human, thereby, about 30 kg of NADH must be generated and funneled to O₂ every day. It does not make sense.

The fluidity of nucleoside triphosphates, via NMP allocation, to handle DNA replication (~2 × 10⁸ ATP to replicate the E. coli chromosome), RNA transcription (~ 200/typical mRNA of 1000 nucleotides), and the many peptide bonds in each protein (~1500 ATP per 30 kDa protein) may be the largest energy drain in proliferating cells [53]; however, ATP is not source of energy, thereby these calculations are wrong, because the source of energy of living things starts with water dissociation.

In cancer cells and in pluripotent stem cells (embryonic), TCA cycle is not fully active for purposes of ATP synthesis, even in the presence of ample oxygen. Thus, they do not oxidize glucose completely, and electrons do not get put into the mitochondrial respiratory chain effectively, the so-called Warburg effect [54].

Phosphorous is an inorganic element probably produced by photosynthesis in living beings. O₂ by analogy is an inorganic molecule also, since nearly all the 20% of the earth’s atmosphere that is O₂ has been biogenically derived via O₂-producing photosynthesis.

O₂: Thermodynamically Activated, Kinetically Stable Inorganic Molecule to Power Eukaryotic Metabolism. Molecular oxygen is a difficult to handle metabolite. Living things have optimized their presence, as it has been present in the equation since the beginning of time. But the valuable product of water dissociation is hydrogen, simply because it is the quintessential energy carrier in the entire universe. Therefore, the following concepts are totally theoretical: Higher eukaryotes unlock its thermodynamic potential to undergo four-electron reduction and make a good living energetically. But glucose is not a source of energy, it is only a source of biomass, even if it is combined with oxygen. They practice substrate hydroxylation chemistry judiciously, in hypoxia, in macromolecule demethylations, and in the steroid hormone maturation pathways. Of course, oxygen appears in every reaction but its “unwanted” presence is since it comes from the dissociation of water that the body carries out to obtain energy. The oxygen that the body contains does not come from the atmosphere. Yet, they still had to evolve enzymatic and nonenzymatic defenses against toxic partially reduced oxygen metabolites, emphasizing how oxygen reductive metabolism has its intrinsic dangers. The previous paragraph, also theoretical, will have to be rewritten since the best antioxidant known is hydrogen.

The amount of ATP in a 70 kg human has been estimated at ~50 g, with about 10⁹ molecules/cell.

The most common single posttranslational modification of proteins (PTM) is phosphorylation of Ser, Thr, and Tyr side chains by ATP-dependent protein kinases, but the activation energy required by enzymes comes from the dissociation of water, the effect of ATP is minor and complementary. Supposedly tens to hundreds of thousands of phosphor variants of proteins may be formed transiently in human cells by the >500 members encoded in human kinemes; however, the energy that the body obtains through the dissociation of water is exact, amazingly accurate, and has not changed since the beginning of time, so the sequence of biochemical logic with which the body handles the compounds that conform us is strictly regulated by 4 billion years of evolution. Many proteins can be phosphorylated at multiple residues, by single or multiple kinases, but it does not happen randomly, but every kinase requires energy that comes from the dissociation of the water molecule. The fraction of a given protein subject to modification can depend on location within the cell (distinct pools) available energy that comes from water dissociation and the activity of the PTM enzymes. Hundreds to thousands of fractional molecular protein variants can be created (but not randomly) and then returned to starting pools by protein phosphatases [55], which, to function properly, require adequate energy, which undoubtedly comes from the dissociation of the water molecule. By the way, any enzyme whether related to phosphate metabolism requires the energy that always comes from water dissociation. Thereby, the turnover rate of the splitting of the water molecules is the great regulator of the functioning of the biochemical logic of life both in water and in agricultural soil.

There are at least four compounds that seem to exist in abundance on planet Earth in comparison with other planets or with known Universe: oxygen, water, clay, and phosphorous.

Them all are produced by living beings. This is: the presence of these compounds and elements requires the presence of life to be produced. Without life, they are not produced or at least are absent.

Such as the O₂ present inside human body coming from water dissociation that living being has inside and not from atmosphere [56], then a significant part of phosphorous coming from the inner photosynthesis more than of diet. Phosphate esters and anhydrides dominate the living world but are seldom used as intermediates by organic chemists. Phosphoric acid is specially adapted for its role in nucleic acids because it can link two nucleotides and still ionize, something unique; the resulting negative charge serves both to stabilize the diesters against hydrolysis and to retain the molecules within a lipid membrane; but these reactions also need the power coming from water dissociation. Phosphates with multiple negative charges can react through energy expenditure, by way of the monomeric metaphosphate ion PO3- as an intermediate. No other residue appears to fulfill the multiple roles of phosphate in biochemistry; however, energy from water dissociation still is needed. Stable, negatively charged phosphates react under catalysis by enzymes—energy expenditure; organic chemists, who can only rarely use enzymatic catalysis for their reactions, need more highly reactive intermediates than phosphates.

Given our discovery of unexpected intrinsic capacity of living beings to transform sunshine power into chemical energy, through water dissociation, like plants do, we can discard the role of phosphates as energy sources [57] limiting it to temperature regulation ATP, ADP, and AMP cycle, the biology of phospho-nucleotides, and control of phosphates toxicity.

Therefore, the planetary boundary for phosphorous must be rethanked, rewritten, [58] because the abundance of phosphorous on Earth and the scarcity in Universe are not by chance. Phosphorous (¹⁵P) is produced by living things, mainly by the microorganisms of the soil; probably arising from silicium (¹⁴Si). Remember that the difference between them is just one proton, and the transformation of sunshine power into chemical energy is through the dissociation of the water molecules, a universal mechanism that places the adequate energy, protons, and oxygen inside every cell of living things.

4. Conclusion

Therefore, while the life thrives on planet Earth, Phosphorous should be produce by living things, as has been done since beginning of time. And it is important to respect the way nature has formed and used it, this is in minimal quantities. The secret of sustainable fertile soil lies in keeping oxygen levels high inside it; something that is possible to achieved with the QBLOCK™.

Once the knowledge about the unsuspected ability to dissociate water from living beings, to transform sunlight into chemical energy, is known and disseminated sufficiently, the use of nitrogen fertilizers can be reduced to a minimum and even stop using them completely, because the damage it causes to the environment, even from their manufacture and subsequent use, they are huge and long-lasting.

We can maintain the fertility of agricultural soil by raising the levels of oxygen it contains and irrigating crops with water with adequate levels of dissolved oxygen, this is above 6 mg/L. This would substantially reduce the need for artificial fertilizers whose synthesis alone is remarkably polluting, not to mention the amounts of phosphates that are thrown into crops and end up flowing in rivers and seas forming dead zones, as in the Gulf of Mexico, in the Gulf of Aden, the Baltic Sea, which continue to spread.

The use of QBLOCK™ or some similar method that raises the levels of dissolved oxygen in both water and agricultural soil will allow us a more rational agriculture, even regenerative, because we will be able to prevent the damage inflicted by current agrochemicals, and even reverse it.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Human Photosynthesis™ Study Centre. Aguascalientes 20000, México.