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Project Progress

This last year saw significant progress on several related projects. We set up five microbial microcosisms related to the early Earth. We are now evaluating their biogeochemistry. We also submitted a paper to the American Journal of Science that uses genomics to explore the history of biogeochemistry. In particular, it explores carbon isotopic fractionation and trace metal usage through time. We also submitted a paper that explores trace methane oxidation in six different archaeal species. In this paper, we present evidence that these species can not couple methane oxidation to the reduction of typical oxidants, that the Archaeoglobales can not oxidize methane, and that methanol may be an intermediate product of methane oxidation in Methanosarcina.