[4] After hearing the group promoting their show on UC Berkeley campus radio, musician and composer Henry Kaiser contacted them, planting the seeds for future collaboration.
[8] The group recently patented a process for the synthesis of isooctane, a fuel component, in high-temperature water in the presence of the Earth-abundant metals nickel and iron.
[10] Shock collaborated on a project that demonstrated that substrate use in culture of a strain of Acidianus is not controlled by energy supply but rather by demand and the cost of catalyzing specific reactions.
[16][17] In Oman, the team determined the energy requirements for the oxidation of molecular hydrogen by methanogens may be higher in hyperalkaline fluids compared to freshwater or marine sediments, and this may contribute to competition with sulfate reducers.
[18][19] Work in Oman also led to the idea that changes in the rate of weathering of ultramafic rocks such as those found at the ophiolite may have contributed to enabling the Great Oxidation Event.
[26][27] The researchers even tested how the approach can handle a built-in time delay between measurements by the ROV and receipt of the data to simulate exploration in space, in preparation for implementation of the method on the Europa Clipper mission to Jupiter.