Who does not want to laugh? A baby’s innocent dance instantaneously induces laughter in us. A group of friends laughing urges our brain to laugh till we cry. But let me tell you, there are other methods that can induce laughter in us without any reason. No I am telling u to be mad but for a short while u still can laugh without reason and the blame will be borne by the air surrounding you. Just inhale the air and you feel refreshed, free of all sorts of trauma while you continue to laugh. This would happen if the air you inhaled contained nitrous oxide (N2O).
Nitrous oxide which is also called laughing gas is a chemical compound which is a colorless and non-flammable gas at room temperature. It has been widely used in medical purposes due to its anesthetic effect. At high temperature with appropriate conditions n20 can be decomposed to atmospheric oxygen (o2) and nitrogen (n2). Hence it is also used in rockets.
Now let us know how this gas with simple molecules causes such a drastic change in us. Whenever we inhale, the air near us goes inside the nose and then to the lungs through a pipe like structure called trachea. Lungs contain alveoli which are balloon like structure having blood vessels. Air taken from surrounding contains oxygen which is absorbed by the blood and then this blood is carried by the blood vessel to different parts of the body. When we inhale nitrous oxide, blood transfers it to different parts of the body including brain. In brain it triggers the release of the body's natural opioids, endorphins and dopamine. These are the chemicals which tell our brain to be happy. When we eat our favorite food, our brain produces such chemicals and we feel happy and relaxed. The more we feel happy the more secretion occurs and more secretion of these chemicals in our brains makes us happier. So we start laughing. When the supply of nitrous oxide is cut off, the secretion of chemicals in brain stops and since we do not have any preexisting reason to laugh, we do not smile on our own and hence we stop laughing.
Considering its immense usefulness u might want to produce this gas in large quantities and spray it everywhere in order to keep people always happy. But this might lead to other problems. nitrous oxide is a notorious greenhouse gas. This means excess production of this gas will lead to absorption of infrared waves coming from sun and emission of those absorbed wave in the surrounding. This results in the warming of earth. when nitrous oxide travels up towards the stratosphere of atmosphere, it reacts with ozone gas and reduces ozone’s concentration. Since ozone gas is responsible for stopping the harmful UV radiation from sun, depletion of ozone allows these harmful radiations to fall on us and cause harmful diseases like cancer. Apart from these large scale problems, it can also cause problems to individual. Prolonged exposure to this gas can reduce oxygen in brain. It can also affect neuron cells and can result in difficulty in learning. People also cannot coordinate their movements and may fall down and hurt themselves.
Like the two sides of a coin we should take care of both advantage and disadvantage of this thing and should not use until prescribed by the doctor.
Barnali Das, IISER, Kolkata
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