Timeline of the Universe · event
Oxygenic Photosynthesis
11.1 billion years — 2.7 billion years ago · Life on Earth
- Temperature (K)
- 3.3
- When
- 11.1 billion years — 2.7 billion years ago
- Redshift
- z ≈ 0.22
- Era
- Life on Earth
- Seconds After Big Bang
- 350187252210000060
What Happened
Cyanobacteria learn to split water rather than something easier, using a cluster of four manganese atoms to prise apart a molecule that does not want to come apart. Every oxygen atom in the air has been through that cluster. It is the single most consequential chemical innovation in the planet's history, and it poisoned the world that produced it.
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