{"id":14285,"date":"2026-08-13T13:44:47","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T20:44:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/?p=14285"},"modified":"2026-09-07T13:47:51","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T20:47:51","slug":"deep-dark-oxygen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/2026\/08\/13\/deep-dark-oxygen\/","title":{"rendered":"Deep Dark Oxygen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/science\/elements\/the-mystery-of-dark-oxygen\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">from The New Yorker<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Mystery of Dark Oxygen<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Scientists once thought that life-sustaining oxygen existed only near Earth\u2019s surface. Then they detected it deep underground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/archive.ph\/o\/w6xmO\/https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/contributors\/james-dinneen\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">James Dinneen<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"DARK OXYGEN : Re-writing Earth&amp;apos;s Evolution!\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bGc1Z-BxKXY?feature=oembed\"  allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In March, I accompanied an international team of scientists on an expedition to one of the deepest places that humans have ever visited, a few hours outside Johannesburg, South Africa. Before sunrise, we drove to the entrance of the Moab Khotsong gold-and-uranium mine, joining a line of workers who were relieving the night shift. Security was tight; for years, mining companies have struggled to keep out illegal miners called\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/archive.ph\/o\/w6xmO\/https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2023\/02\/27\/the-dystopian-underworld-of-south-africas-illegal-gold-mines\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>zama-zamas<\/em><\/a>, who sneak underground and collect ore at great danger to themselves. When guards finally cleared us and our gear, we walked through rotating gates into what resembled a suburban office park. At its center was a boxy concrete tower\u2014a mine shaft that would carry us nearly two miles down into the earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[ <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/science\/elements\/the-mystery-of-dark-oxygen\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">click to continue reading at The New Yorker<\/a> ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>from The New Yorker The Mystery of Dark Oxygen Scientists once thought that life-sustaining oxygen existed only near Earth\u2019s surface. Then they detected it deep underground. By&nbsp;James Dinneen In March, I accompanied an international team of scientists on an expedition to one of the deepest places that humans have ever visited, a few hours outside [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weirdness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14285"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14286,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14285\/revisions\/14286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}