Much of the damage looks like the result of oxidation by free radicals (oxygen-rich compounds released during cellular energy production).

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These free radicals are oxygen-rich molecules in which one of the oxygen atoms is particularly likely to react with other chemicals.

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Such reactions, though, often create damaging oxygen-rich molecules called free radicals, which are thought to be one of the driving forces of ageing.

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That means they destroy certain sorts of oxygen-rich molecules that have been linked, at least circumstantially, to age-related complaints such as heart disease, neurodegeneration and cancer.

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Over millions of years this created an oxygen-rich atmosphere that rapidly removed electrons from minerals near the surface, creating rust out of iron and forming thousands of new minerals from other metals like nickel, copper and uranium.

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The Swedish government is funding research into the feasibility of using a wind-turbine driven oxygen pump in the Baltic, following studies carried out last year by the University of Gothenburg, which looked at the effect of pumping oxygen-rich surface water to the bottom of two Swedish fjords.

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Upon exposure to water and oxygen, these minerals oxidize to form acid-, iron- and sulfate-rich drainage.

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