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Oxygen is not the main constituent of Earth's atmosphere, comprising 21% of the total compared with Nitrogen's 78%, but its role in the survival of many forms of life elevates its significance. Most people are well aware of the important role oxygen plays in metabolic processes, but the fact that oxygen in the atmosphere owes its existence as much to life as life owes its existence to it is often overlooked. It was life itself that created an oxygenated atmosphere and continues to maintain it. Oxygen is what is known as a highly reducing gas: it likes to combine with other molecules like atmospheric gases or surface rocks. It is the second-most electronegative atom in the periodic table after flourine; this means that oxygen has a strong tendency to rip electrons from other atoms. As a consequence, any given oxygen molecule has a relatively short lifetime in the atmosphere. Before the rise of photosynthesis, a process which produces oxygen and continues to this day to replenish our supply, Earth's atmosphere had no appreciable quantity of oxygen whatsoever. Prior to 3.45 billion years ago, Earth's atmosphere and oceans were anoxic (i.e. without oxygen). This is supported by the existence of mass-independent fractionalization (MIF) of sulfur isotopes in sediments from this time period, for these can only form in the absence of oxygen . Then, between 2.45 and 1.85 billion years ago, molecular oxygen appeared, albeit at a small fraction of the current atmospheric level, due to the evolution of photosynthetic cyanobacteria. Photosynthesis works by combining CO2 and H2O with energy derived from light to form O2, an additional amount of H2O, and glucose (C6H12O6 ) which the plant may then use for energy. The photosynthetic equation may be written as: 6 CO 2 + 12 H 2O + photons → C 6H 12O 6 + 6 O 2 + 6 H 2O

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