Originally Posted by AK

The book is called Life As We Do Not Know It. Highly speculative in parts but does a good job summarizing the interesting work going on in the labs of people like Steve Benner, and several people in our program here in Seattle.

No, our theories of the Permian extinction do not involve bolide impact. I thought the paper about the Bedout crater was interesting but Peter doesn't buy it, although I've never gotten a good explanation why out of him. We're looking at the precipitous drop in atmospheric oxygen from an all-time Earth high (well, presumably, and in the Phanerozoic for sure) of ~30% down to around 13% from the mid Permian into the early Triassic, as well as the contemporaneous rise in carbon dioxide, possible huge hydrogen sulfide flux as per papers like the Kump et.al. one from last year (I think?) and potential associated secondary effects of that. Basically, we have an oxygen lab for testing mass extinction kill mechanisms.

David and I are kindred spirits of a sort, being both not only astrobiologists and at least occasional users of leafy green substances (I don't really consider myself a stoner), we're both rock guitarists...