system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
How do organisms break down diatomic nitrogen?

I was watching an old SciShow episode and Hank Green said something to the effect that the N≡N triple bond is so strong, it can't usually be broken except by lightning or a comparably powerful force. Yet nitrogen is arguably one of the very most prevalent and important components of nutrition for most organisms on the planet (in my understanding?). 

So how do organisms break that triple bond in order to render nitrogen reactive enough to bond with other elements?
gpt
The short answer is that certain soil bacteria break N2 down using an enzyme called nitrogenase.  It catalyzes the reaction:

N2 + 6 e^- + 6 H^+ --> 2 NH3

This is a thermodynamically favorable reaction, but it is very slow due to the strength of the nitrogen triple bond, which has to break on the way to forming ammonia.  The active site of nitrogenase contains a large iron sulfur cluster that serves as a powerful and fast source of electrons to make this reaction happen.  At the same time, to maintain charge balance, amino acids near the N2 binding site quickly deliver the hydrogen ions that name up the rest of the reaction.  Overall, we call reactions like these proton coupled electron transfer, or PCET.

The trick in this reaction is that every time you give an electron to N2, its bond gets weaker.  This is due to the increasing population of electrons in what are called antibonding orbitals.  Consequently, if you add 6 electrons to N2, the bond gets completely negated.  Maintaining charge balance through proton delivery makes the injection of additional electrons much easier.