Chemistry of the Lower Atmosphere

About three years ago Catherine de Berg and I published a short article in Nature in which we attempted to explain why the chemistry of the atmosphere of the Earth is today so completely different from that of our two neighbor­ ing planets, Mars and Venus. Our atmosphere is composed mainly of N2 and O with traces of A, H0, CO , 0 , etc. , while the atmospheres of both 2 2 2 3 Mars and Venus are al...