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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Some 4.5 billion years ago, the sun wasn't as bright and life-sustaining as it is today. That should have meant a planetary deep freeze, but primitive photosynthetic microbes may have kept things warm and toasty enough with their methane emissions to help simple organisms stay alive on the early Earth. That's the subject of new research from Chris Reinhard and Kazumi Ozaki with the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. Reinhard is an assistant professor while Ozaki is a postdoctoral fellow.