A study published Monday proposes and puts to the test the theory that longer, continuous daylight kick-started weird bacteria into producing lots of oxygen, making most of life as we know it possible.

Researchers in a study in Monday's Nature Geoscience theorize that Earth's slowing rotation, which gradually lengthened days from six hours to the current 24 hours, was key for the cyanobacteria in making the planet more breathable.

Instead, lots of microbes breathed in carbon dioxide, and in the case of cyanobacteria, produced oxygen in the earliest form of photosynthesis.

But why did the bacteria go on the oxygen making binge?

Arbic was listening to a colleague's lecture about cyanobacteria and he noticed that the oxygen event coincided with the timing of Earth's days getting longer.