I mentioned a possible activity in my other posting, but I should clarify that I am a high school science teacher and would use this novel with high school students. Probably upper grades 11 &12. I mentioned the possibility of using peer reviewed journal articles along with the novel to get an introduction of the format of journal articles because they are heavy duty reads. Finding an article on archaea and working through the various parts of the journal article would introduce students, particularly those who are college bound science majors, to some technical reading skills. Combining a journal article with a novel might make the technical reading less daunting since some of the information could also be retrieved from the novel.