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Deuterium-based biodrome

Inventive concept by requester: a deuterium-based biodrome, i.e., a habitat in which nutrients and life-support environments are based on deuterium (as opposed to hydrogen).

A deuterium-based biodrome is at least partly made up of an environment made of deuterium substituted for hydrogen. This concept covers medical, chemical and mechanical (plant husbandry) areas.

Deuterium is a naturally occurring, non-radioactive isotope of Hydrogen. It is present roughly in amounts of about 1 part per 6500 parts of hydrogen, depending on geographical source. Since deuterium is twice as heavy as hydrogen (i.e., its weight, as contributed primarily by its nucleus of a proton and a neutron, compared with a proton in ordinary hydrogen, renders it twice as heavy), hydrogen-containing chemicals that substitute deuterium for hydrogen, will be heavier in weight. Note that the chemical activity of deuterium is nearly identical to that of ordinary hydrogen, because they both interact chemically with a single orbiting electron, specifically a "1s" electron in both cases.

In order to thoroughly search the patent databases, the impact of substituting deuterium for hydrogen as well as whether it is indeed practical, in biodromes, needs to be determined by the patent searcher. Besides water, which contains two hydrogen atoms and on oxygen atom per water molecule, a wide variety of hydrogen-containing chemicals are essential for the survival of living material in biodromes.

Interestingly, isotopes can differ significantly in their physical properties, even though they share the exact same chemical properties as defined by the number of orbiting electrons, especially the number of orbiting electrons that are available for chemical bonding. Note that the seemingly fine distinctions in the chemical properties of isotopes can result in considerable physical properties when the nucleus of the isotope is unstable (for example, U235 is an immensely more unstable isotope than the more commonly occurring U238). In the case of uranium isotopes, enormous differences in the production of energy in the form of heat from the "fission" of the nucleus, are clearly evident.

However, since deuterium is non-radioactive, the distinguishing features of deuterium-containing chemical compounds is primarily in its higher weight. This can clearly have a physiological effect in a biodrome.