Heliophage


Apologies
November 22, 2009, 5:00 pm
Filed under: Earth history

There have been some rogue postings here as I have tried to get to grips with an alternative blogging system for other purposes; I have deleted them, and apologize for any confusion. If anyone found some windfarm stats and a list of Copenhagen side events useful, I’m glad, but this ain’t the place for that.

Secondly, but of more lasting significance, belated apologies to David Schwartzman for mispelling his name in Eating the Sun. He is a man of single n. He is also a man with some interesting views about the origin of photosynthesis derived, in part, from his belief that the early earth was a very warm place indeed. If you want to catch up with these beliefs, try

“Cyanobacterial Emergence at 2.8 Gya and Greenhouse Feedbacks” David Schwartzman, Ken Caldeira & Alex Pavlov, Astrobiology 8, 187-203 | doi:10.1089/ast.2006.0074
The idea of a hot early earth was questioned in a recent Nature paper

“Oxygen and hydrogen isotope evidence for a temperate climate 3.42 billion years ago” M. T. Hren, M. M. Tice & C. P. Chamberlain, Nature 462, 205-208 | doi:10.1038/nature08518

but I wouldn’t expect that to stand as the last word…

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