A new world opened in the eighteenth century when Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier came to the realization that a component ofthe air we breathe is responsible for combustion. He then described the role this component plays
in respiration and gave it the name oxygen. As we all know, he went on to lose his head, but his observations stimulated an explosion of research on oxygen and oxygenation and an understanding ofbiology and medicine that is still being pursued today.