Researchers in computational biology and marine science have
combined their diverse expertise and found that trace-metal
usage by present-day organisms probably derives from major
changes in ocean chemistry occurring over geological time
scales. |Dust storms sweep iron-rich particles (mineral
aerosols) from the continents into the atmosphere. They fall
into, or are rained into, the oceans, where iron dissolves into
a form that is used, along with other nutrients such as nitrate
(N) and phosphate (P), by phytoplankton and bacteria to live and
grow. Small marine animals (zooplankton) eat phytoplankton and
bacteria. When they excrete fecal pellets or die, organic matter
is transferred to the depths. Credit: Jack Cook, Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution Using protein structures for the first
time in such a study, the research establishes one of the
influences that geochemistry has had upon life. The study,
published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences, sought to verify the theory that the ris