cyanobacteria
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1.75-Billion-Year-Old Fossils Are Oldest Record of Oxygenic Photosynthesis
The story of life on Earth can’t be told without photosynthesis, the process by which plants (and some other lifeforms) convert sunlight into chemical energy. Now, a team of researchers has announced the discovery of fossilized photosynthetic structures—the oldest yet known—from a staggering 1.75 billion years ago. The structures belong to microfossils of Navifusa majensis,…
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Microbes Might Make It Easier to Produce Rocket Fuel on Mars
New research details a biological solution for producing rocket fuel on Mars, but significant hurdles need to be overcome to make this intriguing idea work.
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7 Epic Epochs of Earth, Ranked
Life on Earth is a lot like that song by Chumbawamba. It gets knocked down, but it gets up again, often in a very different way. Through time, species have figured out how to get on land from the water, how to fly, how to give birth to live young, and, most importantly, how to…
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Photosynthesizing Bacteria Found Thriving Thousands Of Feet Below Earth’s Surface
An international team of researchers has identified a peculiar population of cyanobacteria living within rocks deep below Earth’s surface—a surprising discovery given that cyanobacteria require sunlight to survive. Or so scientists thought.