(1) Adèle Mennerat associate professor of evolutionary ecology at the University of Bergen in her research article entitled “How to Deal With PCR Contamination in Molecular Microbial Ecology” (2014) asserts that the addition of DNase in PCR mixes can reduce the number of contaminants in PCR mixes. (2) Mennerat provides evidence by performing PCR techniques with a known contaminated PCR mix, but with the addition of DNase that is heat deactivated prior to replication, and shows the reduction in contaminants. (3) Mennerat purpose is to create a solution to PCR contamination in order to improve PCR purity and fidelity. (4) The intended audience is other lab scientist that work with PCR

Working in command line has been both grueling and enjoyable. There have been tons of points that have been frustrating and confusing, but when you finally get your code to run and it does what you want it to do it is the most amazing feeling. It reminds me a lot of how I feel when I learn a new skate trick. Some of the hardest things are the most rewarding and enjoyable.

Coding is relatively new to me. I have done some R coding, html, and a tiny bit of python. Command line is relatively straight forward and is much easier to debug than html, that is the absolute worst. I have had some pretty frustrating moments though mostly with the software itself, both Cyber Duck and command line have crashed on me or flat out would not accept my password, which set me back a day or two, because I can’t do work if I can’t get in.

One thing I found extremely helpful is to have Cyber Duck open when trying to navigate my files, and also to compare to my code to find typos. Another thing that is very helpful is to have another monitor for directions. This is of course money dependent, but I found it extremely helpful to not have to jump around windows. It could also help to just put it on a bigger screen to more easily view your code, even going to the library and using a monitor their or hook your laptop up to a tv.

I had a few moments that really made me feel like I was getting it. The most exciting ones were when I had made a mistake and I knew exactly what I did and new how to fix it, or new how to move about the files without having to references the notes. I have learned a lot over a short period of time, and I am proud myself and the rest of the class.

Being able to read and critique my peers’ writing was very valuable. We didn’t get to do the full panel format but my group of three discussed the papers we were assigned in our small group. I really enjoyed this format. I always enjoy when I can hear other people’s point of view. It always presents new ways of approaching writing and interpreting scientific writing.

My biggest take away was how important it is to expand on my experimental design. The best papers I read had very explicit steps, expected results and well chosen controls. I think my writing tends to be either way to detailed or very vague. For proposals a balance of the two is needed. For my lab report I will be expected to be more detailed which I don’t expect to struggle with as much, but it is a great lesson to learn.

My other take away was how very creative scientific minds can be and how important that is. I read some very interesting and creative papers. This is more of a cool thing, not really a lesson. I was just very impressed. I will try to remember to be creative in my future DOI’s. It is always good to come at scientific questions from a lot of angles.

In “Identification of Household Bacterial Community and Analysis of Species Shared with Human Microbiome” (2013), Yoon-Seong Jeon a bioinformatic scientist, studies and identifies common household bacteria so that household safety can be better achieved. Jeon achieves this by sampling various surfaces in ten households, and through the use of high throughput sequencing identifies the bacteria in the environments. Jeon performs this research in order to inform and improve public health. The audience is public health workers with a science background.