(Press-News.org) Fool's gold is providing scientists with valuable insights into a turning point in the Earth's evolution, which took place billions of years ago.
Scientists are recreating ancient forms of the mineral pyrite – dubbed fool's gold for its metallic lustre – that reveal details of past geological events.
Detailed analysis of the mineral is giving fresh insight into the Earth before the Great Oxygenation Event, which took place 2.4 billion years ago. This was a time when oxygen released by early forms of bacteria gave rise to new forms of plant and animal life, transforming the Earth's oceans and atmosphere.
Studying the composition of pyrite enables a geological snapshot of events at the time when it was formed. Studying the composition of different forms of iron in fool's gold gives scientists clues as to how conditions such as atmospheric oxygen influenced the processes forming the compound.
The latest research shows that bacteria – which would have been an abundant life form at the time – did not influence the early composition of pyrite. This result, which contrasts with previous thinking, gives scientists a much clearer picture of the process.
More extensively, their discovery enables better understanding of geological conditions at the time, which informs how the oceans and atmosphere evolved.
The research, funded by the Natural Environment Research Council and the Edinburgh Collaborative of Subsurface Science and Engineering, was published in Science.
Dr Ian Butler, who led the research, said: "Technology allows us to trace scientific processes that we can't see from examining the mineral composition alone, to understand how compounds were formed. This new information about pyrite gives us a much sharper tool with which to analyse the early evolution of the Earth, telling us more about how our planet was formed."
Dr Romain Guilbaud, investigator on the study, said: "Our discovery enables a better understanding of how information on the Earth's evolution, recorded in ancient minerals, can be interpreted."
### END
Fool's gold gives scientists priceless insight into Earth's evolution
Fool's gold is providing scientists with valuable insights into a turning point in the Earth's evolution, which took place billions of years ago
2011-07-25
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Office of Naval Research's TechSolutions program lightens burden for Navy's EOD team
2011-07-25
ARLINGTON, Va. — Designed to cut the 50 pounds of battery devices hauled by the Navy's explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) teams, the Office of Naval Research's (ONR) TechSolutions Program has developed a lightweight power system, which was delivered July. 22.
Responding to a request from the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Training and Evaluation Unit (EODTEU) 2 to create a lightweight power device to charge their specialized equipment, TechSolutions partnered with Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane, Ind., and Protonex Technology Corp. to develop the Power Management Kit (PMK) ...
Deepwater Horizon crude less toxic to bird eggs after weathering at sea
2011-07-25
After collecting weathered crude oil from the Gulf of Mexico following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, researchers at The Institute of Environmental and Human Health (TIEHH) at Texas Tech University have reported that only 8 to 9 percent coverage on the shells of fertilized mallard duck eggs resulted in a 50 percent mortality rate.
However, scientists also reported the amount of time the oil remained at sea and exposed to weather had a significant effect on its toxicity to the fertilized duck eggs, said Phil Smith, an associate professor at TIEHH. They published their ...
Caltech-led astronomers discover the largest and most distant reservoir of water yet
2011-07-25
PASADENA, Calif.—Water really is everywhere. Two teams of astronomers, each led by scientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), have discovered the largest and farthest reservoir of water ever detected in the universe. Looking from a distance of 30 billion trillion miles away into a quasar—one of the brightest and most violent objects in the cosmos—the researchers have found a mass of water vapor that's at least 140 trillion times that of all the water in the world's oceans combined, and 100,000 times more massive than the sun.
Because the quasar is ...
Penn: Nanoplasmonic 'whispering gallery' breaks emission time record in semiconductors
2011-07-25
PHILADELPHIA — Renaissance architects demonstrated their understanding of geometry and physics when they built whispering galleries into their cathedrals. These circular chambers were designed to amplify and direct sound waves so that, when standing in the right spot, a whisper could be heard from across the room. Now, scientists at the University of Pennsylvania have applied the same principle on the nanoscale to drastically reduce emission lifetime, a key property of semiconductors, which can lead to the development of new ultrafast photonic devices.
The research ...
Earliest watery black hole discovered
2011-07-25
Pasadena, CA— Water really is everywhere. A team of astronomers have found the largest and farthest reservoir of water ever detected in the universe—discovered in the central regions of a distant quasar. Quasars contain massive black holes that are steadily consuming a surrounding disk of gas and dust; as it eats, the quasar spews out huge amounts of energy. The energy from this particular quasar was released some 12 billion years ago, only 1.6 billion years after the Big Bang and long before most of the stars in the disk of our Milky Way galaxy began forming.
The research ...
Can feeling too good be bad? Positive emotion in bipolar disorder
2011-07-25
Positive emotions like joy and compassion are good for your mental and physical health, and help foster creativity and friendship. But people with bipolar disorder seem to have too much of a good thing. In a new article to be published in the August issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, psychologist June Gruber of Yale University considers how positive emotion may become negative in bipolar disorder.
One of the characteristics of bipolar disorder is the extreme periods of positive mood, or mania. ...
Farthest, largest water mass in universe discovered
2011-07-25
An international team of astronomers led by the California Institute of Technology and involving the University of Colorado Boulder has discovered the largest and farthest reservoir of water ever detected in the universe.
The distant quasar is one of the most powerful known objects in the universe and has an energy output of 1,000 trillion suns -- about 65,000 times that of the Milky Way galaxy. The quasar's power comes from matter spiraling into the central supermassive black hole, estimated at some 20 billion times the mass of our sun, said study leader Matt Bradford ...
Shining a light on the elusive 'blackbody' of energy research
2011-07-25
CHESTNUT HILL, MA (July 22, 2011) – A designer metamaterial has shown it can engineer emitted "blackbody" radiation with an efficiency beyond the natural limits imposed by the material's temperature, a team of researchers led by Boston College physicist Willie Padilla report in the current edition of Physical Review Letters.
A "blackbody" object represents a theorized ideal of performance for a material that perfectly absorbs all radiation to strike it and also emits energy based on the material's temperature. According to this blackbody law, the energy absorbed is equal ...
Life scientists use novel technique to produce genetic map for African Americans
2011-07-25
UCLA life scientists and colleagues have produced one of the first high-resolution genetic maps for African American populations. A genetic map reveals the precise locations across the genome where DNA from a person's father and mother have been stitched together through a biological process called "recombination." This process results in new genetic combinations that are then passed on to the person's children.
The new map will help disease geneticists working to map genetic diseases in African Americans because it provides a more accurate understanding of recombination ...
Cellular stress can induce yeast to promote prion formation
2011-07-25
It's a chicken and egg question. Where do the infectious protein particles called prions come from? Essentially clumps of misfolded proteins, prions cause neurodegenerative disorders, such as mad cow/Creutzfeld-Jakob disease, in humans and animals. Prions trigger the misfolding and aggregation of their properly folded protein counterparts, but they usually need some kind of "seed" to get started.
Biochemists at Emory University School of Medicine have identified a yeast protein called Lsb2 that can promote spontaneous prion formation. This unstable, short-lived protein ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
Heart rhythm disorder traced to bacterium lurking in our gums
American Society of Plant Biologists names 2025 award recipients
Protecting Iceland’s towns from lava flows – with dirt
Noninvasive intracranial source signal localization and decoding with high spatiotemporal resolution
A smarter way to make sulfones: Using molecular oxygen and a functional catalyst
Self-assembly of a large metal-peptide capsid nanostructure through geometric control
Fatty liver in pregnancy may increase risk of preterm birth
World record for lithium-ion conductors
Researchers map 7,000-year-old genetic mutation that protects against HIV
KIST leads next-generation energy storage technology with development of supercapacitor that overcomes limitations
Urine, not water for efficient production of green hydrogen
Chip-scale polydimethylsiloxane acousto-optic phase modulator boosts higher-resolution plasmonic comb spectroscopy
Blood test for many cancers could potentially thwart progression to late stage in up to half of cases
Women non-smokers still around 50% more likely than men to develop COPD
AI tool uses face photos to estimate biological age and predict cancer outcomes
North Korea’s illegal wildlife trade threatens endangered species
Health care workers, firefighters have increased PFAS levels, study finds
Turning light into usable energy
Important step towards improving diagnosis and treatment of brain metastases
Maternal cardiometabolic health during pregnancy associated with higher blood pressure in children, NIH study finds
Mercury levels in the atmosphere have decreased throughout the 21st century
This soft robot “thinks” with its legs
Biologists identify targets for new pancreatic cancer treatments
Simple tweaks to a gene underlie the stench of rotten-smelling flowers
Simple, effective interventions reduce emissions from Bangladesh’s informal brick kilns
Ultrasound-guided 3D bioprinting enables deep-tissue implant fabrication in vivo
Soft limbs of flexible tubes and air enable dynamic, autonomous robotic locomotion
Researchers develop practical solution to reduce emissions and improve air quality from brick manufacturing in Bangladesh
Durham University scientists solve 500-million-year fossil mystery
Red alert for our closest relatives
[Press-News.org] Fool's gold gives scientists priceless insight into Earth's evolutionFool's gold is providing scientists with valuable insights into a turning point in the Earth's evolution, which took place billions of years ago