Nature 445, 610 - 612 (08 February 2007); doi:10.1038/445610a

Evolutionary biology:Out of thin air

John F. Allen & William Martin

John F. Allen is at the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK.
j.f.allen@qmul.ac.uk
William Martin is at the Institut für Botanik III, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Universitätsstrae 1, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany.
w.martin@uni-duesseldorf.de

The invention of oxygenic photosynthesis was a small step for a bacterium, but a giant leap for biology and geochemistry. So when and how did cells first learn to split water to make oxygen gas?

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