On April 23, 2003 Jesse visited with Craig Venter at the Institute for Biological Energy Alternatives in Rockville MD to learn about IBEA’s plans for sequencing the microbial “marine genomeâ€, which would strongly influence and advance the International Census of Marine Microbes of the Census of Marine Life. In response to a not-so-serious remark from Jesse about “What’s next after sequencing the ocean, the atmosphere?â€, Craig answered very seriously, “Yes, exactly.†This led to a collaboration, ably implemented by Sloan Foundation colleague Paula Olsiewski and IBEA’s Bob Friedman, to explore the “air genome†in New York City. An October 17 2005 story in Genome Web reports good progress in the project, which was announced in a March 2005 press release.