In 2024, a team led by Prof. Andrew Sweetman from the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) made a discovery which has challenged the scientific consensus on oxygen production and the origins of life on Earth. Their revolutionary findings of oxygen production in complete darkness, 4,000 meters below the ocean surface, has implications for the evolution of complex life and deep-seabed mining.
There is growing interest in the mineral deposits that occur on the deep seabed. Terrestrial deposits of metals such as copper, nickel, aluminium, manganese, zinc, lithium and cobalt are increasingly in demand for technologies critical to the Net Zero transition such as wind turbines, solar panels and batteries.
So I was delighted to chair the Dark Oxygen Discovery: Implications for Marine Science, the Origins of Life and and Deep Seabed Mining SPICe briefing.
Guest speakers Professor Andrew K Sweetman and Professor James Harrison gave a fascinating presentation on the remarkable discovery of dark oxygen, which challenges the scientific consensus on oxygen production and the origins of life on Earth.
