> Xenon, an odorless gas, has been known for years to activate a molecule called the hypoxia-inducible factor
I'm curious how a noble gas manages to do that, given the low reactivity.
There is no real evidence that xenon stimulates the production of red blood cells. This is likely just a placebo effect kind of thing that maybe gave the climbers a bit of extra confidence.
Four of the climbers were or are special forces and they used low oxygen hypobaric sleeping tents to acclimate instead of doing it on the mountain. 3 days on the mountain to perform the climb.
reactivity?
the question would be answered by simply confirming that the body does not take on xenon and rejects it, IE: zero xenon reactivity....and are there in fact phisiological changes when breathing it, how it is processed by the body if taken into the blood stream, and then somehow released
could be something as simple as (temporarily) messing up red blood cells and triggering an immune response to make more blood, NOW!