Reddit reviews Oxygen: The Molecule that Made the World (Popular Science)
We found 8 Reddit comments about Oxygen: The Molecule that Made the World (Popular Science). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
To all the people talking about telomeres:
Turns out telomeres isn't the answer. Most cells don't divide enough times to get to their Hayflick limit, and those that divide indefinitely (stem cells, germ cells) express telomerase. Current frontrunning theories deal with oxidation from damaged mitochondria and resulting dysregulated metabolism. The body doesn't really have any evolutionary incentive to live much longer than enough time to raise your kids. See the disposable soma theory. For more information check out this book
As a side note, not everything is replaced every 7 years. Neurons are permanent, elastin in skin isn't replaced (hence, wrinkles), etc.
It actually is. Excellent book called Oxygen: The Molecule that made the World by Nick Lane details how life came about and ends due to our reliance upon oxygen.
He also wrote Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life which I would also highly recommend. Basically, it details how eukaryotic cells developed through the Hydrogen Hypothesis.
Oxygen. All books by this author are AMAZING (yes in caps).
The data showing that a lot of the coal was originally deposited as charcoal is quite recent, but it's also completely solid. Something about getting identical spectroscopic results between modern day charcoal and Carboniferous coal. However, there's no reason why peat and charcoal wouldn't get along perfectly well - something must have been deposited in between the forest fires. See this: http://www.amazon.com/Oxygen-Molecule-World-Popular-Science/dp/0198607830
When it comes to the oxygen levels, I realize that I leaped to far too broad conclusions. About half a dozen people posted overnight showing data asserting that whatever was going on with oxygen through the Mesozoic was more complicated than I'd thought it was. I responded to OmniHippo's post regarding this.
In response to your third paragraph, I'm pretty sure that you're talking about the Snowball Earth episodes, which mostly happened LONG before the Carboniferous.
In response to your first and second paragraph, thanks. Nice catches.
I hadn't seen this answer yet, so I will throw it out there. Like most of the other ideas here this is a hypothesis. Life has made various evolutionary innovations over history and one idea is that woody bark/stems were first evolved sometime immediately proceeding the carboniferous. Woody stems are stronger and more resilient because there are protein cross links between cellulose strands. Cellulose being a long strand of linked sugars. Woody stems are very difficult to digest, which is why pretty much nothing eats it. When it first evolved, literally nothing ate it because it was so new and no organism had the tools to break it down. So, during the carboniferous trees and plants with woody stems proliferated because they had few or no natural predators, and probably also because they could grow taller than their competitors thanks to the strong stems and thus had better access to sunlight. They did still die of old age however, and that woody material would just sit there without decaying. Eventually it would be buried and millions of years later we would dig it out of the ground as coal or oil.
Well, the process plants use to grow is they take CO2 out of the atmosphere to build cellulose and other structural molecules and release oxygen. So what was happening in the carboniferous was that this was a very one way process. The carbon was being fixated and nothing was breaking it down to re-release it.
That all changed when fungi, think mushrooms and molds, eventually evolved the enzymatic equipment to break down woody stems. Sometime at the end of the carboniferous presumably. With this second innovation, the woody part of plants didn't just sit around waiting to be buried, it was broken down the fixated CO2 was released back into the atmosphere. Obviously this added a new variable to the equation and the oxygen level in the atmosphere struck a new and lower balance.
I suggest "Oxygen" and "power, sex, suicide" by nick lane if you are really interested in this subject.
https://www.amazon.com/Power-Sex-Suicide-Mitochondria-Meaning/dp/0199205647
https://www.amazon.com/Oxygen-Molecule-World-Popular-Science/dp/0198607830
Unfortunately my only source is this book... perhaps you find it on the internets or otherwise :P
http://www.amazon.com/Oxygen-Molecule-World-Popular-Science/dp/0198607830/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1347771712&sr=1-2&keywords=oxygen
I assume you're looking for some pop sci books rather than papers? If so, I really enjoyed:
EDIT: I don't have as many books as I thought I did, I've been reading papers rather than books
I'm reading Oxygen: The Molecule that Made the World. next up is Sullenberger's book