A sample of ancient oxygen, teased out of a 1.4 billion-year-old evaporative lake deposit in Ontario, provides fresh evidence of what the Earth鈥檚 atmosphere and biosphere were like during the interval leading up to the emergence of animal life.聽
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Published on: 18 Jul 2018
Chemical analysis of some of the world鈥檚 oldest rocks, by an international team led by 香蕉视频 researchers, has provided the earliest record yet of Earth's atmosphere. The results show that the air 4 billion years ago was very similar to that more than a billion years later, when the atmosphere -- though it likely would have been lethal to oxygen-dependent humans -- supported a thriving microbial biosphere that ultimately gave rise to the diversity of life on Earth today.
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Published on: 14 Jan 2015
The distinctive 鈥渇ecal prints鈥� of microbes potentially provide a record of how Earth and life have co-evolved over the past 3.5 billion years as the planet鈥檚 temperature, oxygen levels, and greenhouse gases have changed. But, despite more than 60 years of study, it has proved difficult, until now, to 鈥渞ead鈥� much of the information contained in this record. Research from 香蕉视频 and Israel鈥檚 Weizmann Institute of Science, recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), sheds light on the mysterious digestive processes of microbes, opening the way towards a better understanding of how life and the planet have changed over time.
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Published on: 23 Dec 2014
An analysis of sulfide ore deposits from one of the world鈥檚 richest base-metal mines confirms that oxygen levels were extremely low on Earth 2.7 billion years ago, but also shows that microbes were actively feeding on sulfate in the ocean and influencing seawater chemistry during that geological time period.
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Published on: 10 Dec 2012
