At a depth of around 4,000 metres, beyond the reach of sunlight, polymetallic nodules lie scattered across the Pacific seabed. Formed over millions of years, these mineral bodies contain metals coveted for batteries and digital technologies. A 2024 study led by Andrew Sweetman reported unexpected rises in oxygen around the nodules and proposed that they might behave like natural ‘geobatteries’. The finding and its mechanism remain under scientific debate.
Dark Oxygen: Malum Prohibitum transforms this unresolved hypothesis into a living technological system. Archaeobacteria, an electrolytic cell, microscopic bubbles, sound and light connect biological metabolism with mineral agency. Miha Godec asks what becomes visible when the deep ocean is understood not as an empty storehouse of raw materials, but as a network of relations we have barely begun to comprehend.

Scientific note
‘Dark oxygen’ is a name for the net oxygen increase reported in enclosed experiments, not yet a confirmed new global oxygen source. On 8 April 2026, Nature Geoscience added an Editor’s Note stating that concerns about aspects of the paper were under consideration.