It is amazing how far science has come that we can take a bit of soil (250 mg to be exact), shake it, add some reagents one at a time, centrifuge and vortex numerous times, and then have purified DNA with only a few contaminants left…but nothing that can be seen with the naked eye!

What I see most days now are test tubes and DNA extracted from soil! Oh, and ice…lots and lots of ice!

On top is soil that had been shaken and centrifuged prior to extraction process. Bottom is after removal of soil and precipitation of proteins and DNA.

My trusty bucket of ice keeping my samples and reagents cold while I work at the lab bench.