A study by the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) at Institute of Science Tokyo offers insights into how microbial life may have functioned during a critical phase in Earth's history, when oxygen was only beginning to accumulate in the atmosphere. By studying iron-rich hot springs in Japan that mirror the conditions of early, low-oxygen oceans, researchers discovered microbial communities sustained by iron metabolism, supported through a relationship with oxygen-producing photosynthetic microbes.

What happens when cows graze, carbon vanishes from soil, and climate change looms large? Scientists have a plan—and it involves a black, brainy material called biochar that’s transforming how we think about soil health in some of the planet’s most delicate landscapes. A powerful new study—published on July 7, 2025, in Carbon Research—has cracked the code on how to protect and even boost soil carbon in karst ecosystems, the stunning limestone-rich regions that stretch across southern China and beyond.