The Oxygen Apocalpyse: how bacteria used a spin diode to wipe out ancient life (keiran-rowell.github.io)

The article explains how cyanobacteria’s photosynthesis—via the oxygen-evolving complex (OEC) with a manganese-calcium cluster—could produce oxygen by using quantum “spin” constraints to drive water splitting. It describes oxygen’s normally low reactivity due to its triplet electron spin, and how the OEC’s coordinated charge and spin cycles act like a “spin diode” (the S-clock) to release triplet oxygen while minimizing harmful reactive side products. The resulting rise in atmospheric oxygen is framed as a key driver in the decline of earlier oxygen-sensitive life during the Archean.