No such quality control is generally needed for our bodies when we breathe any oxygen atom will do as well as any other, because we only need the oxygen to make molecules inside our bodies, and chemically all oxygen atoms are essentially the same. Bricks and concrete blocks vary, and are sometimes defective, and so a builder must exercise quality control, to make sure that cracked or over-sized or misshapen bricks and blocks aren’t used in the walls of the house. Contrast this with what a construction company has to do when building a house out of bricks, or out of concrete blocks. That all atoms of the same isotope are identical, and that different isotopes of the same element have nearly identical chemistry, is a profound fact of nature! Among other things, it explains how our bodies can breathe oxygen and drink water and process salt and sugar without having to select which oxygen or water or salt or sugar molecules to consume. This a consequence of the identity of their electrons, of their protons and of their neutrons, which will be discussed later. They all have exactly the same mass, the same chemical properties, the same behavior in the presence of electric and magnetic fields they emit and absorb exactly the same wavelengths of light waves. If you take a collection of atoms that are from that isotope - a bunch of atoms that all have Z electrons, Z protons, and N neutrons - you will discover they are literally identical. Take any isotope of any chemical element with atomic number Z. Now here’s a remarkable fact, with enormous implications for biology.
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