Infants born too early have an insufficient amount of surfactant lining the alveoli. This means there is less surface area ...

small size - each of the alveoli is a small sphere about 300 μm in diameter, giving it a larger surface area to volume ratio than larger structures number - there are around 700 million alveoli ...

The cells in the body need oxygen to release energy from food efficiently by carrying out aerobic respiration. A waste product of aerobic respiration is carbon dioxide. The layer of moisture in ...