Word: cyanogen
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...with water. Creatures that have ammonia instead of water in their tissues, would digest food by ammonolysis, i.e., by combining it with ammonia. Instead of oxydizing food to liberate energy as earth's animals do, Jovian animals would combine it with nitrogen, and the final product would be cyanogen (CN)2, a gas that is violently poisonous to life on earth. "Jovian animals," says Astronomer Firsoff, "could breathe nitrogen and drink liquid ammonia. Whether they do remains to be seen...