When researchers discovered evidence of “dark oxygen” last year, the news spread around the world, but the biggest challenge ...

Understanding dark oxygen Through a series of experiments, the researchers ruled out biological processes such as microbes and zoned in on the nodules themselves as the phenomenon’s origin.

To investigate dark oxygen further, Ruff and his team traveled to a 3-kilometer-deep (9,500-foot-deep) mine in South Africa in August to sample water that had been trapped in the rock for 1.2 ...

To investigate dark oxygen further, Ruff and his team traveled to a 3-kilometer-deep (9,500-foot-deep) mine in South Africa in August to sample water that had been trapped in the rock for 1.2 ...

The dark oxygen findings also raise questions about the origins of life itself. "This discovery implies the possibility that aerobic [oxygen-dependent] life arose before photosynthesis evolved ...

To investigate dark oxygen further, Ruff and his team traveled to a 3-kilometer-deep (9,500-foot-deep) mine in South Africa in August to sample water that had been trapped in the rock for 1.2 ...

To investigate dark oxygen further, Ruff and his team traveled to a 3-kilometer-deep (9,500-foot-deep) mine in South Africa in August to sample water that had been trapped in the rock for 1.2 ...

To investigate dark oxygen further, Ruff and his team traveled to a 3-kilometer-deep (9,500-foot-deep) mine in South Africa in August to sample water that had been trapped in the rock for 1.2 ...