This is why highly oxidized water has a lethal effect on bacteria.

FORBES: Holy Water

The John Klein powder is less oxidized and therefore has a higher potential to preserve organic compounds, if they were originally present.

FORBES: First Curiosity Drilling Sample in the Scoop

Interestingly enough, when examining the chemical composition of the Martian minerals, the Curiosity team discovered both oxidized and reduced forms of sulfur compounds.

FORBES: Curiosity Finds That Ancient Mars May Have Been Habitable

Coronary artery disease begins when excess cholesterol particles, called low-density lipoprotein particles, become lodged in the artery wall over time and get chemically damaged, or oxidized (close-up diagram).

FORBES

Powder from the drill was a gray-green color, meaning it was not highly oxidized, said David Blake, principal investigator for Curiosity's Chemistry and Mineralogy investigation at NASA's Ames Research Center.

CNN: NASA: Yes, Mars could have hosted life

The method, which is said to have no discharge and no effluence, is considered cost-competitive with cyanide if the ore contains sulfites, Faucher said, but can be used with oxidized and mixed ores.

FORBES: Firm Uses Cyanide--Free Method To Leach Gold, Other Metals

"It's going to take years to get us back to where we were, " said Vourderis, standing over hundreds of mint-green quarters that were oxidized so severely that banks won't accept them without first having them cleaned in bleach.

WSJ: NYC's Coney Island hopes for rebound after Sandy

Over the next decade animal studies at UCLA and elsewhere showed that macrophages are attracted to arteries when cholesterol lodged in the arteries gets chemically altered, or oxidized, so that the immune system suddenly spots it as foreign and goes on the attack.

FORBES: Attacking Heart Attacks