'He's in our hearts': Family and friends still seek answers one year after Nathan Wise’s disappearance
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
While scientists from the University of Waterloo were examining a 2.5-billion-year-old ruby, they discovered a rare find: evidence of ancient life.
Their clue was the carbon residue, or graphite, recently found encased inside of some of the oldest gemstones in the world.
“The graphite inside this ruby is really unique. It’s the first time we’ve seen evidence of ancient life in ruby-bearing rocks,” Chris Yakymchuk, lead researcher and University of Waterloo professor, said in a press release.
Some of the oldest ruby deposits in the world are in Greenland. This is where the team discovered a ruby sample which contained graphite -- a mineral made of pure carbon.
Analysis of the material found the graphite in the ruby showed remnants of early life, potentially long-dead cyanobacteria.
The graphite was found in rocks dating back 2.5 billion years ago in an era when there wasn’t a lot of oxygen in the atmosphere and the the majority of life was microorganisms and algae films, the team said.
Yakymchuk’s team recently published their finding in November edition of the peer-reviewed journal Ore Geology Reviews, with the journal Chemical Geology publishing their earlier findings in June.
Yakymchuk’s team was initially studying the stones’ geology to better understand what conditions are needed to form rubies.
“The presence of graphite also gives us more clues to determine how rubies formed at this location, something that is impossible to do directly based on a ruby’s colour and chemical composition,” Yakymchuk said in the release.
But just because graphite was found initially didn’t necessarily mean it was life.
To find out for sure, Yakymchuk’s team analyzed a property called isotopic composition, which measures the relative amounts of different carbon atoms. More than 98 per cent of all carbon have a mass of 12 atomic mass units (carbon-12). But sometimes, the carbon atoms are heavier, having a mass of 13 or 14 atomic mass units.
“Living matter preferentially consists of the lighter carbon atoms because they take less energy to incorporate into cells,” Yakymchuk said in the release.
“Based on the increased amount of carbon-12 in this graphite, we concluded that the carbon atoms were once ancient life, most likely dead microorganisms such as cyanobacteria.”
The team also determined that the very presence of graphite not only indicated early life, but allowed for the ruby to exist.
It turns out that the graphite changed the chemistry of the surrounding rocks, which allowed for ruby growth. Without the graphite itself, Yakymchuk’s team says it would have been impossible for the rubies to have formed.
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
Dozens of Ontarians are expressing frustration in the province’s health-care system after their family doctors either dropped them as patients or threatened to after they sought urgent care elsewhere.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
Amazon's paid subscription service provides free delivery for online shopping across Canada except for remote locations, the company said in an email. While customers in Iqaluit qualify for the offer, all other communities in Nunavut are excluded.
The fire burning near Fort McMurray grew from 25 hectares to 5,500 hectares over the weekend.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin began a Cabinet shakeup on Sunday, proposing the replacement of Sergei Shoigu as defence minister as he begins his fifth term in office.
Police are searching for a male suspect after a man was “slashed in neck” on Sunday morning in downtown Toronto and died.
There were some scary moments for several people on a northern Ontario highway caught on video Thursday after a chain reaction following a truck fire.
Health Canada announced various product recalls this week, including electric adapters, armchairs, cannabis edibles and vehicle components.
English, history, entertainment, math and geography: high school trivia teams could be quizzed on any of it when they compete at the Reach for the Top Nationals in Ottawa in June.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
The threat of zebra mussels has prompted the federal government to temporarily ban watercraft from a Manitoba lake popular with tourists.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
Just as she had feared, a restaurant owner from eastern Quebec who visited Montreal had her SUV stolen, but says it was all thanks to the kindness of strangers on the internet — not the police — that she got it back.