Tom HuntJun 3

#Cyanobacteria may have been responsible for a mass #extinction event about 2.4 billion years ago.

https://spacedaily.com/t-one-of-the-earliest-great-extinctions-in-earths-history-may-have-been-caused-not-by-an-asteroid-or-a-volcano-but-by-oxygen-itself-when-tiny-photosynthetic-microbes-slowly-filled-the-air-with-a-gas-t/

#Oxygen #AnaerobicLife #Microbiology

One of the earliest great extinctions in Earth's history may have been caused not by an asteroid or a volcano but by oxygen itself, when tiny photosynthetic microbes slowly filled the air with a gas that was poison to much of the anaerobic life that ruled the planet long before us

Around 2.4 billion years ago, the air over Earth began to change. Microbes in the oceans, the cyanobacteria, had been running a chemical reaction that split water and released oxygen as waste. For a long time that oxygen was mopped up almost as fast as it was made. Then the sinks filled, and it began […]

Space Daily
OptimusPrimeBotApr 23

Working on The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope - Long Exposure Timelapses

#Atmosphere #Atmosphericscience #Bacteria/archaea #BiologicalClassification #Cleanroom #Clouds #Cyanobacteria(bluegreenAlgae) #EarthScience

⏩ 2 new pictures and 2 new videos from NASA (SVS) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:ListFiles?limit=10&user=OptimusPrimeBot&ilshowall=1&offset=20260423125546

Resolviendo la incógnita 🌐Mar 24
El moco o mierda de bruja (Nostoc commune) es una cianobacteria colonial que crece tanto en tierra como en agua dulce, viéndose a menudo tras las lluvias. 📷Ruth & Joe Barrett #cyanobacteria #cianobacterias
toiidaMar 10
Кое-что новое про цианобактерии (цианобактерии и ближний инфракрасный свет; заголовок неоправдано нью-васюковский): https://www.bbc.com/russian/articles/cz7gre32731o #cyanobacteria #speleology #NIR #scipop
Как находка в пещере в Нью-Мексико поменяла наши представления о том, на каких планетах возможна жизнь - BBC News Русская служба

Ученые, исследующие пещеры Карлсбад в Нью-Мексико, обнаружили микроорганизмы, которые осуществляют фотосинтез в полной темноте с помощью света, близкого к инфракрасному диапазону. Это означает, что планеты, где возможна жизнь, можно искать у более холодных звезд, которых во Вселенной гораздо больше.

BBC News Русская служба
Scientific FrontlineFeb 10
Researchers reproduced the simplest natural #circadian system found in blue-green algae (#cyanobacteria ) within a test tube, demonstrating how a single clock signal coordinates daily #gene switching.
#MolecularBiology #Biotechnology #Chronobiology #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/02/mbio02102601.html
Scientists rebuild microscopic circadian clock to control genes

Scientists recreate the world’s simplest biological clock in a test tube, revealing how genes switch on and off across the day.

Lukas VFN 🇪🇺Jan 29

Surprising Green Ice on Lake #Lipno: #Cyanobacteria Bloom in Mid-Winter https://www.bc.cas.cz/en/news/news-detail/7816-surprising-green-ice-on-lake-lipno-cyanobacteria-bloom-in-mid-winter/

"An unusual natural phenomenon appeared on Lake Lipno in #SouthBohemia, #Czechia, at the end of 2025. Large amounts of cyanobacteria in the water caused the ice to turn green... After refreezing, a particularly distinctive feature was the formation of so-called cyanobacterial eyes - areas of clear ice above dark cyanobacterial aggregates caused by differences in the absorption of solar radiation."

David OjciusJan 26

Mangrove cyanobacterial diversity as a source of bioactive natural products

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266651742600012X #OpenAccess #cyanobacteria #microbiology

Scientific FrontlineJan 14
#Cyanobacteria are key #ecological players of global carbon and nitrogen cycles. They are also becoming increasingly important for carbon-neutral biotechnology. They could serve as green cell factories for a light-driven and sustainable production of #chemicals and #fuels
#Biotechnology #Microbiology #MolecularBiology #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/01/btech01142601.html
Not only toxic but also a nutrient: guanidine as a nitrogen source

A riboswitch as an important tool in sustainable biotechnology

Benjamin Carr, Ph.D. 👨🏻‍💻🧬Jan 13
#GreatGreenWall 2.0: #China is #geoengineering #deserts with blue-green #algae
These specially selected strains of #cyanobacteria can survive extreme heat and drought for long periods, according to China Science Daily on Thursday. When rain finally comes, they spring to life, spreading rapidly and forming a tough, biomass-rich crust over the sand. This living layer stabilises the dunes and creates the perfect foundation for future plant growth.
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3338326/great-green-wall-20-china-geoengineering-deserts-blue-green-algae
Great Green Wall 2.0: China is geoengineering deserts with blue-green algae

Scientists aim to reclaim thousands of hectares of desert using cyanobacteria that can stabilise sand and create foundation for plant growth.

South China Morning Post
Mikko TuomiJan 13

Earth-like #planets orbiting small, red #stars known as M-dwarfs are often considered the right size and at the right distance from their sun to harbor #life.

However, these worlds may not have the right kind of light to support multicellular organisms.

Here on Earth, #plants and #bacteria turn sunlight into energy through #photosynthesis, releasing oxygen as a byproduct.

During the Great Oxidation Event around 2.3 billion years ago, significant quantities of #oxygen began to accumulate in our #atmosphere, eventually reaching levels capable of supporting multicellular life.

According to our understanding, a similar process would have to occur on other planets for complex life to start evolving.

#Photosynthesis requires a specific kind of light from 400 to 700 nanometers that plants, #algae and #cyanobacteria need to thrive.

Although it was known that light from M-dwarf stars like TRAPPIST-1 is mostly #infrared, which falls outside this range, what was unknown was how this would slow down the evolutionary clock.

By comparing light from these red stars to our own sun and modeling the oxygen production of various #bacteria, redearchers calculated that because these stars produce so little usable energy, the accumulation of oxygen would be far too slow.

Potentially, on a #planet like TRAPPIST-1e, it would take 63 billion years in a worst-case scenario to reach the oxygen levels seen on Earth through photosynthesis.

#astronomy #astrobiology #exoplanets
https://phys.org/news/2026-01-complex-life-planets-orbiting-galaxy.html

Preprint by Soliz & Welsh (2026):
https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.02548

Complex life on planets orbiting the galaxy's most common stars may be unlikely

In a blow to anyone dreaming that complex life may exist elsewhere in the universe, a new study suggests we're unlikely to find it around many of the most common stars in the galaxy.

Phys.org