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Sample Storage in the Field

from Flickr under public domain license
from Flickr under public domain license

Innovation and a dollop of creativity has allowed researchers to make laboratory luxuries a reality in the field. Nowadays, you can do almost anything even in the most remote of areas. For example, the ability to sequence DNA in the field will be possible in the not so distant future. That said, many projects are hindered by the lack of access to proper refrigeration for reagents and samples. This intriguing segment from NPR talks about a new technology that can keep vaccines cold (between 0C and 10C) for at least 35 days with no energy input. The idea of vacuum insulation is not a new idea; we have all used a Thermos at some point, right? Yet somehow engineers have make The Arktek cooler super kickass, and its applications are definitely not limited to vaccines. While the cooler was designed to transport vaccines across extremely hot deserts, it has also opened up many possibilities for research in far-off extreme environments.

Katherine Dahlhausen

Katie Dahlhausen is a PhD student in Jonathan Eisen’s lab and is interested in the biogeography and mechanisms of antibiotic resistance. Find out more at her Twitter feed .

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