A hidden mineral trap in ancient ocean sediments may have starved early marine life of phosphorus, the nutrient most critical ...

Oxygenic photosynthesis, a cornerstone of terrestrial and aquatic life, has long been associated with the absorption of visible light by chlorophyll a and ...

Scientists have long sought to explain a key mismatch in Earth's early history: oxygen-producing photosynthesis evolved ...

From space, Earth looks like an absolute paradise with deep ocean blues and verdant green vegetation covering every continent including Antarctica. But are we biased in thinking that any sort of ...

Oxygen, the molecule that supports intelligent life as we know it, is largely made by plants. Whether underwater or on land, they do this by photosynthesizing carbon dioxide. However, a recent study ...

A previously unknown form of photosynthesis discovered in purple bacteria scooped from a Californian hot spring may be an ancient process that arose before the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis, ...

Bacterial evolution and oxygen adaptation: A timeline built from genomic, fossil, and chemical data. Colors show oxygen states: anaerobic (blue), aerobic (red), and proportion of aerobic lineages in ...

Consider the possibility of alien plants. After all, plenty of exoplanets likely have conditions friendly to the development of plants, even if evolution there never makes it as far as complex ...

A new study from the University of Helsinki reveals how plant mitochondria draw molecular oxygen away from chloroplasts, an ...