Where did the Earth's oxygen come from? New study hints at an unexpected source

By David Mole, Postdoctoral fellow, Earth Sciences, Laurentian University
Adam Charles Simon, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of Michigan
Xuyang Meng, Postdoctoral Fellow, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Michigan

The amount of oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere makes it a habitable planet.

Twenty-one per cent of the atmosphere consists of this life-giving element. But in the deep past — as far back as the Neoarchean era 2.8 to 2.5 billion years ago — this oxygen was almost absent.

So, how did Earth’s atmosphere become oxygenated?

Our research, published in Nature Geoscience, adds a tantalizing new possibility: that…

Read complete article

~	Four decades of strife and resistance: A deep dive into what's happening in West Papua

~	Gambia: Bill Threatens Female Genital Mutilation Ban

~	Jordan: Syrian Student Faces Imminent Deportation

~	In Knife, his memoir of surviving attack, Salman Rushdie confronts a world where liberal principles like free speech are old-fashioned

~	It never rains but it pours: intense rain and flash floods have increased inland in eastern Australia

~	‘It could be the death of the museum’: why research cuts at a South Australian institution have scientists up in arms

~	Rugby stadiums are sold as an economic asset – but NZ needs to ask if they’re really worth it

~	The ‘devil comet’ 12P/Pons-Brooks has finally become visible from Australia. What can we expect?

~	Some families push back against journalists who mine social media for photos – they have every right to

~	I wholeheartedly recommend The President: a brilliant revival of a play of decay, terror and revulsion