Today's issue of Current Biology has a special section on Life and Earth. My contribution is a feature on how (microbial) life produces mineral structures. The general (astrobiology-flavoured) theme that our planet is special and habitable because it was shaped by life is one I keep coming back to. I have previously had features on how insects build their own environment and how the collaboration of plants and fungi made the continents habitable, and there is also a lot about this in our astrobiology book. This time you'll find new research about stromatolites, microbialites and polymetallic nodules.
A planet shaped by life
Current Biology Volume 36, Issue 20, 19 October 2026, Pages R1085--R1087
Restricted access to full text and PDF download
Magic link for free access
(first seven weeks only)
(Unfortunately, this year's features will no longer become open access one year after publication - do contact me if you would like a PDF and the magic link has expired.)
See also my new Mastodon thread where I will highlight all this year's CB features.
My mastodon posts are also mirrored on Bluesky.
Last year's thread is here .
The cover of the special issue shows a section of the Banded Iron Formation from Pilbara, Western Australia, with alternating stripes of iron oxides and chert (microcrystalline silica). Around 2.5 billion years of age, these rock layers are believed to result from shallow-water oxidation of iron that precipitated and sedimented in deeper, still anoxic ocean layers. They are testament to the first increase in oxygen levels in Earth’s atmosphere, caused by the advent of oxygenic photosysthesis by cyanobacteria, and thus to one of the many ways that Life and Earth have influenced and shaped each other—the focus of our special issue (pages R1079–R1129).
(Image © Australian Museum, photographed by Abram Powell.)
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