Science
An ancient mystery – EurekAlert
Alyson Santoro and Susannah Porter receive support from the Moore and the Simons foundations to study the eukaryotic cell’s origins
Early Earth was no place to be. Hot, oxygen-free and subject to cataclysmic cosmic bombardments, our planet some 4.5 billion years ago was inhospitable to life as we know it. And yet from this early awkward stage, thanks to the metabolism of primitive single-celled organisms, Earth’s atmosphere changed. Oxygen levels rose first in the shallow surface waters and atmosphere, and 2 billion years later in deeper waters.
This Great Oxidation Event, which began about 2.4 billion years ago, set the stage…
Continue Reading
