Thursday, April 16, 2009

2009/04/16 LE

Scientific Amercian-60 second science

Link:http://www.sciam.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=breathing-easy-thanks-to-great-oxid-09-04-13


Title:Breathing Easy Thanks to the Great Oxidation Event

The Earth's original atmosphere would have been unpleasant
-deadly in fact-to any organisms that breathe oxygen.

Now reasearchers believe they've foond clues as to what
may have caused the change.

sedimentary a 由沈澱物所生成的
abundant a 大量的,充足的
primordial a 原始的

Microorganisms called methanogens love nickel-rich water, and they release methane into the astomphere.

methanogens
methane n甲烷

Methane prevents a buildup of oxygen.

Lack of nickel could have killed off methanogens and left room for algae and other life forms that release oxygen during photosynthesis.

algae->alga n 水藻(常用複數)
photosynthesis n光合作用

the nickel disappearance is one more clue about how the
planet went from suffocating to a place where a terrestrial tetrapod could take a deep breath.

suffocating a 令人窒息的
terrestrial a 地球的 n 地球人
tetrapod a 四足動物的 n四足動物

No comments:

Plurk