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The Devonian period is also known as the Age of Fishes. Here, we see the fish Dunkleosteus preying on eurypterids (sea scorpions), which in turn were feeding on the smaller trilobites.  (Image credit: Aunt_Spray via Getty Images)

Depleting oxygen and rising hydrogen sulfide levels in the oceans may have been responsible for one of Earth’s most significant mass extinctions more than 350 million years ago, a new study finds. The changes were likely driven by rising sea levels and have some spooky parallels to conditions seen today.

Researchers studied samples of black shale from the Bakken Formation, a 200,000-square-mile (518,000 square kilometers) region partly laid down during the late Devonian that encompasses parts of North Dakota and Canada and is one of the largest contiguous deposits of natural gas and oil (opens in new tab) in the United States. The team found evidence that Earth experienced periods of oxygen depletion and hydrogen sulfide expansion, which likely contributed to the sweeping extinction events that ravaged Earth during the Devonian period (419.2 and 358.9 million years ago), or the “Age of Fishes.” 

Hydrogen sulfide forms when algae decomposes on the ocean floor. The decomposition process also depletes the area of oxygen.

“There have been other mass extinctions presumably caused by expansions of hydrogen sulfide before, but no one has ever studied the effects of this kill mechanism so thoroughly during such a critical period of Earth’s history,” study co-author Alan Jay Kaufman (opens in new tab) , a geologist at the University of Maryland, said in a statement (opens in new tab) .

Related: Scientists just found a hidden mass extinction in Earth’s ancient past

During the Devonian period, sea life profilerated. Jawless fishes, known as placoderms, diversified widely throughout oceans that encircled the supercontinents Gondwana and Euramerica. Oceans were also full of trilobites and early ammonites, and extensive reefs fringed the continents. On land, Earth saw its first forests of ferns and early trees. By the mid-Devonian, Earth’s earliest known tetrapod Tiktaalik roseae had crawled out of the sea.

However, the Devonian period also saw some of the most significant extinctions in Earth’s history, including one of the five infamous ‘mass extinction’ events that led to the evolution of the flora and fauna we know today. Placoderms, trilobites and early ammonites disappeared, while cartilaginous fish-like sharks and rays proliferated. 

To better the Devonian extinctions, the research team analyzed more than 100 core samples drilled from black shale deposits in the Bakken Formation. This organic-rich sediment accumulated near the end of the Devonian period, recording the environment within its chemical makeup.

The team found evidence of “anoxic events,” where waters were completely depleted of oxygen, they reported in the study, published March 8 in the journal Nature (opens in new tab) .

These sharp drops “are likely linked to a series of rapid rises in sea level” due to the melting of South Pole ice sheets during the preceding Silurian period (443.8 million to 419 million years ago), Kaufman said in the statement. related stories–After the ‘Great Dying,’ life on Earth took millions of years to recover. Now, scientists know why.

–The 6th mass extinction hasn’t begun yet, study claims, but Earth is barreling toward it

–A supernova may have triggered a mass extinction on Earth 359 million years ago

Simultaneously, plants transformed rocky land into soil, which would have released nutrients to flow into those rising oceans. The influx of nutrients into the oceans would have triggered massive algal blooms, which died, decomposed and soaked up oxygen. As they decomposed, the dead algae released hydrogen sulfide, increasing levels of the toxic chemical. 

The oxygen-depleted seas were too much for Devonian marine life. Researchers estimate that 75% of all life went extinct by the end of the Devonian.

The Devonian mass extinction is a warning for today, the study authors wrote. Oxygen-depleted dead zones emerge in oceans every year, in places like the Gulf of Mexico and the Baltic Sea (opens in new tab) . Intensive fertilizer use, plus sewage runoff, boost the ocean’s nutrient levels and encourage massive algal blooms. And as the globe warms and sea levels rise, the oceans won’t circulate oxygen as well, Kaufman said in the statement. 

Past mass extinctions can help scientists understand the consequences of our actions today. Although the reasons for sea level rise and nutrient influx in the Devonian are different from today, they could lead to the same result — a massive loss of life in our planet’s oceans, the researchers argue.

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Delay biometric visa checks for 80 Gaza students, dozens of MPs urge UK government

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Delay biometric visa checks for 80 Gaza students, dozens of MPs urge UK government

More than 70 MPs have signed a letter asking the government to delay biometric checks for 80 students from Gaza so they can study in Britain, Sky News can reveal.

Labour MPs Abtisam Mohamed and Barry Gardiner are leading the charge, asking Home Secretary Yvette Cooper to defer the requirement, so the students can take up their university places in September.

However, shadow home secretary Chris Philp says the biometric checks should not be deferred, arguing they are “an essential part of our security arrangements”.

Gaza latest: Netanyahu mulls ‘full Gaza takeover’

In order to obtain a UK visa, applicants must provide a photo of their face, as well as their fingerprints. The Home Office guidance says these data points “play a significant role in delivering security and facilitation in the border and immigration system”.

UK visa process for Gazans ‘all but impossible’

In the letter, the MPs raise the case of a Haia Mohamed, who they describe as a “young poet in Gaza”, who has won a scholarship to Goldsmiths College in London.

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But neither she nor 79 other successful applicants to UK universities are able to travel to the UK because providing the required biometric data is “all but impossible”.

Labour MPs Abtisam Mohamed and Barry Gardiner are rallying colleagues to support their efforts. Pics: UK Parliament
Image:
Labour MPs Abtisam Mohamed and Barry Gardiner are rallying colleagues to support their efforts. Pics: UK Parliament

They write: “Even before the war, leaving Gaza to pursue higher education was a complex process. The ongoing siege and restrictions made travel extremely difficult, but in the current state of constant bombardment, shootings at aid sites, and an IPC-declared famine, this process has become all but impossible.”

In an email to MPs asking them to sign the letter, Mohamed and Gardiner are far more blunt, saying: “Unless the government makes rapid progress with offering visas and coordinating evacuations over the next week, students who should be starting university next month in the UK will be among those who are being shot dead at aid sites, bombed in displacement camps, or starving as famine spreads deeper in Gaza.”

The UK did have an authorised centre in Gaza that was able to process biometric data, but it was closed in October 2023 after the 7 October Hamas attack, and as Israel’s war in response to the atrocity got under way, according to The Guardian.

As result, they are asking the home secretary to “defer biometric data screening for student visa applicants based in Gaza and open a safe passage to enable these young people to fulfil their academic dreams”, pointing out that other countries in Europe “have taken proactive steps to ensure safe evacuation routes for students bound for their countries”.

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UK to treat more Gaza children

Students are ‘the future of Palestine’

Speaking to Sky News on Tuesday, one of the writers of the letter, Barry Gardiner MP, pointed out that the government has been able to find a way for injured children from Gaza to receive care in the UK, and exemptions have been made in the past, and so the same should be done in this case, and “quickly” because the academic year starts next month.

The Brent West MP also said that this is about “giving the state of Palestine the possibility of a future”.

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What would a ‘full Gaza occupation’ look like?

“These young people are the future of Palestine. They are the young talent, and it doesn’t matter whether they’re constructing a road network, or a sewage system, or they’re town planners or, as in the case of Haia Mohamed, astonishingly profound poets – the state of Palestine will need everything from classical musicians right the way through to town planners,” he said.

“And these youngsters are coming over here with that full range of study potential, with the express intention of going back and building their nation.”

He added that the fact they have been able to win scholarships to, in many cases, the UK’s top universities “shows extraordinary resilience, extraordinary courage, extraordinary ability, and we should facilitate that”.

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Gaza airdrops: ‘No-one has mercy’

Checks ‘essential part of security arrangements’

But Conservative MP and shadow home secretary Chris Philp told Sky News in a statement: “We should not be deferring biometric checks. These are an essential part of our security arrangements, and they should not be waived or delayed until arrival in the UK – by which time it is too late.”

Earlier this month, a student from Gaza reportedly left France after being ordered to leave following the discovery of alleged antisemitic social media posts. Her lawyer said she “firmly denies the accusations made against her”, according to France24.

Mr Gardiner told Sky News: “Anyone who breaks the law in that way must be dealt with as the law requires. But what you don’t do is you don’t say, ‘somebody might break the law, so we’re not going to allow anybody to come’.”

Read more:
More children from Gaza to be brought to UK for medical treatment
Netanyahu to instruct Israeli military on next steps in Gaza
Analysis: Full Israeli occupation of Gaza could massively backfire

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The UK requires that biometric data be submitted in advance of the visa being approved in order to:

• Establish a person’s identity by joining the applicant’s biographical data with their biometric data;
• Verify an individual “accurately against an established identity”;
• Check they are not on a watchlist, for example, to ensure they are eligible to come to the UK.

Exemptions from the requirement to provide biometric data have been given in rare circumstances. It was waived for Ukrainians fleeing to the UK following Russia’s invasion in January 2022.

However, it was not waived for Afghans fleeing the Taliban in August 2021. But a judge later ruled that a family in hiding in the country did not have to provide the data in order to join British family members in the UK, which was thought to also apply to around 100 other families.

The Home Office and Foreign Office have been contacted for comment.

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Environment

California greenlights $56.5M to amp up apartment EV chargers

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California greenlights .5M to amp up apartment EV chargers

If you live in or develop apartments in California, there’s fresh cash on the table to get Level 2 EV chargers installed. The Communities in Charge project, backed by the California Energy Commission’s Clean Transportation Program, just opened a new funding lane worth up to $56.5 million for multi-family housing and nearby spots where tenants can plug in.

How it works

  • Who can apply? California property owners or stakeholders ready to install Level 2 chargers at multi-family and adjacent tenant-accessible sites.
  • When? Applications opened today at 9 am PT and run through January 9, 2026, at 5 pm PT.
  • What’s covered? Up to $8,500 per Level 2 port. Starting in October, the program will also kick in $2,000 per publicly accessible Level 1 port.  Extra “plus-ups” are available for Tribal communities.
  • Equity first: An equity-based scoring system bumps projects that serve disadvantaged, low-income, and Tribal areas to the front of the line.

The project is run by CALSTART (with GRID Alternatives and Tetra Tech riding shotgun). CALSTART already oversees more than $1 billion in national clean-transportation incentives.

“This funding wave marks a critical step in making electric vehicle charging accessible to more Californians, no matter the type of housing,” said Stacey Simms, CALSTART’s senior director of clean fuels and infrastructure. “By dedicating funding to this housing sector, we’re ensuring that infrastructure barriers are broken down so that multi-family housing residents can go electric at home.”

What happens after you click ‘submit’

Applications roll in through the Incentive Processing Center and get reviewed as they arrive:

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  • Readiness Tier 1 (projects that can basically start tomorrow) snag an immediate “Notice of Final Award.”
  • Readiness Tier 2 candidates get a “Notice of Conditional Award” and 90 days to hand in extra paperwork before they secure their final green light.

Read more: California now has nearly 50% more EV chargers than gas nozzles


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Technology

Super Micro shares plunge 15% on weak results, disappointing guidance

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Super Micro shares plunge 15% on weak results, disappointing guidance

Charles Liang, CEO of Super Micro, speaks at the Computex conference in Taipei, Taiwan, on June 1, 2023.

Walid Berrazeg | Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Super Micro Computer shares slid 15% in extended trading on Tuesday after the server maker reported disappointing fiscal fourth-quarter results and issued weak quarterly earnings guidance.

Here’s how the company did in comparison with LSEG consensus:

  • Earnings per share: 41 cents adjusted vs. 44 cents expected
  • Revenue: $5.76 billion vs. $5.89 billion expected

Super Micro’s revenue increased 7.5% during the quarter, which ended on June 30, according to a statement.

For the current quarter, Super Micro called for 40 cents to 52 cents in adjusted earnings per share on $6 billion to $7 billion in revenue for the fiscal first quarter. Analysts surveyed by LSEG were looking for 59 cents per share and $6.6 billion in revenue.

For the 2026 fiscal year, Super Micro sees at least $33 billion in revenue, above the LSEG consensus of $29.94 billion.

Super Micro saw surging demand starting in 2023 for its data center servers packed with Nvidia for handling artificial intelligence models and workloads. Growth has since slowed.

The company avoided being delisted from the Nasdaq after falling behind on quarterly financial filings and seeing the departure of its auditor.

As of Tuesday’s close, Super Micro shares were up around 88% so far in 2025, while the S&P 500 index has gained 7%.

Executives will discuss the results on a conference call starting at 5 p.m. ET.

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