Taken for granted - Take 5: Oxygen

Chains of cyanobacteria seen through an optical microscope

One of the first forms of life according to the geologic record, and arguably the first form of life on earth was cyanobacteria (sai·a·now·bak·tee·ree·uh). The bacteria started a chain reaction over the following billions of years that changed the planet from empty and void, mostly covered by salty seas and toxic gases to a thriving planet with immense biodiversity.

The first evidence that the Earth was exposed to light dates back to around 3.5 billion years ago when the first photosynthetic organisms began to emerge. These first organisms used sunlight to convert carbon dioxide and water into energy, releasing oxygen as a byproduct.

This process, known as oxygenic photosynthesis, led to the production of free oxygen, which eventually led to the oxygenation of the Earth's atmosphere and the evolution of aerobic organisms. Prior to this, the Earth's atmosphere was largely composed of carbon dioxide, methane, and other gases.

Stromatolites in Glacier National Park

The earliest evidence of photosynthesis comes from fossilized mats of cyanobacteria known as stromatolites, which have been found in rocks dating back to around 3.5 billion years ago. These stromatolites are thought to have been formed by the trapping and cementation of sediments by mats of cyanobacteria in shallow marine environments.

While they may look like blue-green algae, they are not algae, but cyanobacteria that have a greenish look in aquatic environments – not exactly the water you would like to dive into..

Overall, the emergence of photosynthetic organisms and the production of atmospheric oxygen are considered to be some of the most significant events in the history of life on Earth, as they paved the way for the evolution of complex life forms and the development of diverse ecosystems.

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Cyanobacteria (CB) are a group of photosynthetic bacteria that play important roles in a wide range of ecosystems. In addition to photosynthesis, CB performs other miraculous functions:

1. Nitrogen fixation: Some species of cyanobacteria have the ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen, converting it into a form that can be used by other organisms. This process is important for the nitrogen cycle and helps to provide nitrogen for plant growth.

2. Carbon cycling: Cyanobacteria play an important role in the global carbon cycle, taking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and incorporating it into biomass through photosynthesis. When cyanobacteria die and sink to the bottom of aquatic ecosystems, they can become buried in sediments, where they may remain for millions of years and contribute to the formation of fossil fuels.

3. Ecosystem services: Cyanobacteria are a source of food for many aquatic organisms, such as fish and zooplankton. They also play important roles in water quality and nutrient cycling in aquatic ecosystems.

Based on the age of the earth at 4.5 billion years and the first evidence of cyanobacteria of 3.5 billion years ago, these bacteria would have been formed in the first billion years of its existence. This leaves two options: cyanobacteria were created by random events in the earth’s first billion years or they were created by a more intelligent being.

Proposition 1: Cyanobacteria created by random events in nature in the first billion years

The building blocks of cyanobacteria are the same as those of all living organisms: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, and other essential elements. These elements are combined to form a variety of organic molecules, such as proteins, nucleic acids, and lipids, that are essential for the structure and function of cells.

With all of our knowledge in 2023, understanding and technology, human’s cannot create any of the building blocks of cyanobacteria – the proteins, the nucleic acids, and the lipids – from scratch in 2023! Let alone, combining them into a complex living organism that requires a wide range of biological components to function, such as DNA, proteins, lipids, and various metabolites.

Diagram showing the structure of a cyanobacteria cell

The technology included in cyanobacteria exceeds anything we as humans could produce – therefore what is the probability that these bacteria could be produced randomly in nature? Very, very low!

The technology included in an iPhone is amazing and we can produce millions of copies. Nature would have a far easier time producing iPhones than a cyanobacteria as it is a lower level of complexity. How many iPhones have been discovered in the geological record in the earths 4.5 billion years of existence? We can have 100% confidence that none will ever be discovered due to the second law of Thermodynamics – entropy or disorder of a system always increases – things in natural systems deteriorate, they don’t appreciate unless acted on by an external force.

Cyanobacteria proteins are carefully folded into specific three-dimensional structures that are critical to their function. The specific folding pattern of a protein is determined by its amino acid sequence, and any errors in this folding process can result in a dysfunctional or nonfunctional protein.

Proteins in cyanobacteria are involved in a wide range of cellular processes, including photosynthesis, respiration, and nitrogen fixation, among others. These proteins are often large and complex, with multiple subunits that must be assembled and folded correctly in order to form a functional protein.

The folding of proteins in cyanobacteria, as in all living organisms, is a complex and highly regulated process that is guided by a variety of molecular chaperones and other cellular factors. If the folding process is disrupted, for example by exposure to high temperatures or other stressors, it can lead to the misfolding of proteins and the buildup of protein aggregates, which can be toxic to the cell.

Diagram showing the complex folding of proteins in a cyanobacteria.

The chances that all these molecules lined up in nature randomly and perfectly is very low, way less than 1 in a billion in my estimation; otherwise, we could duplicate this today, knowing all the building blocks, but we cannot. How then could something without a brain, create these complex structures?

Another question for the theory of natural selection and random development of these complex organisms – if it took 1 billion years to develop cyanobacteria through this process, why did not cyanobacteria evolve into more sophisticated forms in the next 3.5 billion years of the earth’s existence. They should have evolved 3 to 4 times more than they have -- the cyanobacteria of old is pretty much the cyanobacteria of today with modest evolutionary improvements in certain environments with no change in species.

Proposition 2: Cyanobacteria were created by higher intelligence on earth

According to the Good Word (see Genesis 1), the earth was empty and desolate and darkness was upon the face of the deep and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. “And God said, Let there be light, and there was light.” The light was called day and the darkness called night, all being part of the first day, or time period in the creation.

Verse 6 states that God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters… and it divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament.” The original Hebrew word used in the Bible is "raqia," which literally means "expanse" or "vault." If we replace the word “firmament” with “expanse”, this verse makes much more sense. The expanse referred to here is the atmosphere that divides the water above and below it.

In the first step, God creates heaven and earth. Second, the creation of the earth with enough water to cover 71% of the earth and provide a reservoir of oxygen (H2O) large enough to produce the atmosphere in which life can thrive abundantly. Third, the introduction of light (and cyanobacteria) about 3.5 billion years ago. In this process, cyanobacteria used energy from the light to convert carbon dioxide and water into organic compounds and oxygen gas.

Over a significant period of time, enough free oxygen was produced to enable plants to exist, which require about a 2-3% oxygen level at a minimum. Then plants, grasses, and trees through photosynthesis could produce more oxygen so that animal life could exist. During the Proterozoic Eon of the earth’s existence (approximately 2.5 billion to 542 million years ago), free oxygen grew from less than 1% to about 2-3% oxygen. Animals require an atmosphere of about 16% free oxygen. Humans require about 19.5% free oxygen as a minimum in the atmosphere to support their larger brain functions. Atmospheric oxygen has been stable at 21% over the past several thousand years based on ice core data, which shows atmospheric composition and climate records for hundreds of thousands of years.

What is remarkable is that what Moses wrote in Genesis lays out the perfect ordering of the creation from heavens and earth, to water, light, atmosphere, plant life, animal life and finally human life that is supported by the scientific record. It took the earth 3.5 billion years to achieve a steady state level of oxygen at 21%, a perfect level for plant, animal and human life. Do we take this miracle for granted?

Scientifically, the evidence of there not being a God can only be proven, by traveling to every place in the known universe to determine there is no such being. Since this is impossible, the probability of their being a Creator remains at 50%.

How rare a condition is the earth we live on?

We have estimated probabilities for the earth’s perfect mass to equal 5.972 x 1024 kg, the sun being the perfect distance from the earth at 93 million miles away, the earth’s miraculous atmosphere, and water in the quantity and quality for life to exist, in the table below.

To this we need to add the formation of cyanobacteria as the first living organism otherwise the earth remains empty and desolate for the remaining 3.5 billion years of its existence. Based on our analysis in Proposition 1, we will assume these unusual events, a one in a thousand chance.. We have no evidence of cyanobacteria on any other planet in the universe.

From the perspective of independence of the variables, there is some lack of independence of the variables between Take 3 (Earth’s atmosphere) and Take 5 (CB being the first life form) with the formation of free oxygen; therefore, we have reduced the probability that the first life form to randomly develop on earth in the first billion years to be one in a thousand.

The chance that all of these variables occurred at once is determined by multiplying all the probabilities together is a 1 in 16.4 billion chance in our base case. That probability is equivalent to flipping 34 heads in a row, which if each coin flip took 5 seconds, would take you 2,598 years to accomplish. The probability there is a Creator (0.5) is 8.192 billion times more likely than all these variables occurring simultaneously.

The more realistic case is so far off the charts – the probability of all these things occurring simultaneously is one in 10 sextillion.

This small incredibly complex creation, the cyanobacteria has been instrumental for the oxygen we breath, the cheap energy we heat and cool our houses with and power our devices and computers, providing food for plants, grasses and trees, which provide us food in abundance. Let's take a moment to thank our Creator for this amazing creation!!

Next time, we will look into other things we take for granted..