We Just Discovered "Dark" Oxygen on Earth - Breakthrough Explained
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Published 2024-07-28
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Chapters:
0:00 The Accidental Discovery
2:17 Ad Read
3:06 Oxygen and Our Oceans
5:44 Discovering A New Source of Oxygen - Polymetallic Nodules
8:20 The Second Experiment and Electricity Production
11:02 So, What Does This Discovery Mean For Us?
#science #discovery #nature #mystery #energy
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All Comments (21)
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I loved reading into this. Infinite oxygen source or Baghdad Battery? Let me know what you think! And learn about science faster with Shortform. Don't miss out on 20% though www.shortform.com/drben
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"It's better to kill your enemies and destroy yourself than let yourself be destroyed and have your enemies keep your resources" - Literally all of humanity when they find resources
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I've read articles about this but always appreciated the depth to which you explore your topics, especially making it easily digestible to the average watcher!
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I'm glad you covered this! I saw the release and was wondering just how impactful this discovery will turn out to be.
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A week ago I saw a video saying that we must leave them alone.
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Irrespective of why it works, the fact that we know it does and how slow it is to recover and replenish means the only choice is to stop scraping the last layer of life off the face of the earth.
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First thing I thought when hearing this was: "how the heck are these 'batteries' not running out of juice after a couple years"? I have not heard a satisfactory explanation as of yet.
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What I don't quite understand is why they did not measure the Hydrogen levels. Shouldn't that give a clear indication of whether electrolysis is taking place or am I missing something?
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The only thing I think about this is that more, objective, science needs to be done on these rocks. Something interesting is happening, and we probably should know what since it is O2 related. The mining companies profits can suck it, however.
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Well that they were able to reproduce the effect in the lab is pretty significant to prove their explanation.
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It takes energy - lots of energy - to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. If the nodules are acting as a battery, they would soon be used up and the reaction would stop. If they are acting as a catalyst, there still needs to be an energy source. I hope they go back and look for hydrogen. If water is being split, hydrogen should be present.
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nice video! the cynic in me doubts that mining deep sea beds would be hampered by whatever discoveries are made about "dark oxygen" sources
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*humans. Lets use it for batteries. Who cares if it "might" be why we have half the oxygen on earth. We need batteries!
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I would expect it's more like a catalytic converter reaction. We know the nodules have uncommon useful metals and rare earth material, useful in explicitly novel "enzyme" like materials. A "battery" theory would quickly corrode the materials, or dissolve them entirely. I'm glad you touched on it.
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No bit of information about CO2 level in this regions. We know that CO2 is slipping through gaps in the earth crust and is dispersed in water. We know that chemical reactions may reduce CO2 to CO + O or C + O2. So why do they think so complicated that it should be electrolysis?
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This is probably something our generation will see as "devastating" in 30 years time... After the science has been dismantled as quick as the ocean floor will inevitably be mined.... 😢
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these rocks take millions of years to form and should remain in the oceans
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Nice to see our India map properly portrayed Thank you Doctor.
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It's discoveries like this that really make me wish that we still had Nikola Tesla around for his interpretations. I'd be very interested to hear his theories about this.
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If it's the surface area that's important, then a fraction of the nodules could be ground up into chunks and still get the job done in terms of oxygen generation and hosting unique microbes. The process of mining would still be ecologically devastating though.
