Interested in Soil Ecology and Biogeochemistry?

Gain an integrated perspective with world-renowned faculty to address critical questions using current analytical techniques, experimental approaches, and instructional models.  Topics include:

• What are the physical, chemical and biological components of soil?
• What do molecular techniques tell us about soil biodiversity?
• How does soil chemistry affect carbon and nutrient cycling?
• How are soil processes affected by global change?

The Summer Soil Institute is designed for graduate students,post-docs, professionals, faculty, and K-12 teachers. Located at the confluence of the Rocky Mountains and the Great Plains, participants will be provided with hands-on experience with lab, field, and modeling techniques including:

Soil physics and biochemistry
• pedology
• organic matter fractionation
• stable isotopes
• soil respiration
• trace gas fluxes
• NMR, FT-ICR-MS, and XRD

Soil biology-microbes and fauna
• DNA extraction
• quantitative PCR
• enzyme activities
• microscopy-based identification
• soil food web modeling

2012 Faculty
Thomas Borch
Francesca Cotrufo
Gene Kelly
John Moore
Mary Stromberger
Joe von Fischer
Diana Wall
Matthew Wallenstein
Featuring honored guest Dr. Eldor Paul, author of Soil Microbiology, Ecology, and Biochemistry

Where and When
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO
July 8-21, 2012

http://soilinstitute.nrel.colostate.edu/

For more information and to apply, please visit the website:
Web: http://soilinstitute.nrel.colostate.edu/

Email: soil@nrel.colostate.edu

It’s an incredibly handy detachable horizontal tube holder for efficient and consistent mixing of multiple samples for time periods too inconvenient to hold by hand. Try saying that three times fast!

Every once in a while we get technical calls or emails about attaching the vortex adapter to the Vortex Genie 2. It can be a little bit tricky if you never realized that the standard factory attached cup on top is easily removed and can be replaced with alternative adapters for holding different sized tubes. Where can you find these alternative adapters for the Vortex Genie 2? From MO BIO Labs, of course!

MO BIO Labs manufactures adapters in a variety of tube sizes from 2 ml up to 50 ml for the purpose of  hands-free vortexing. If you’ve never used them before, then this short but catchy instructional video should make it completely clear how to pop the adapters on and off.

Take a look!

They look like the two examples below, which were named Best Student Posters at the 3rd Annual Argonne Soil Metagenomics Workshop held October 5-7 at the Indian Lakes Resort just outside of Chicago, IL. Read the rest of this entry »

Isolation of RNA, no matter what the source, is nerve wracking, but especially when samples are limited or irreplaceable.  Because RNA is so labile, working quickly but carefully is the key. There are ways to protect your RNA during the procedure so that you can work at a relaxed pace and without so much anxiety. Today I’d like to give you some tips and tricks for isolation of RNA that will help you work smarter, faster and increase your overall success.

Read the rest of this entry »

Many thanks to Russell Neches from the Jonathan Eisen Lab at UC Davis for sending us this great instructional video for using sterivex water filters in the field. And many thanks for giving MO BIO and the PowerWater Sterivex DNA Isolation Kit a shout out in the comments!

Here it is, if you’ve never used a sterivex water filter before, watch Russell demonstrate how to set it up and collect your samples.

To read more from Russell check out his blog too.

Water filtering gizmo for Sterivex filters

By Mark Brolaski

This summer my wife and I planned to teach our 16 year old daughter the value of having a summer job. Our goal was to teach her to understand that money is fun to have and even more fun if you have earned it yourself and can therefore spend it how you choose (within limits of course, after all she is a teenager!).

The plan was to send her off to the local stores and restaurants to apply and get a job all on her own. This is how we both got our first jobs. Unfortunately, after weeks of applications and turn downs due to lack of experience and an overabundance of other high school kids and recent college graduates applying for the same jobs, the situation looked rather bleak. Read the rest of this entry »

…and win a prize!  This month marketing is holding a fun contest that is sure to get your creative minds flowing.  Send MO BIO a video of a song or dance featuring our products by the end of this month and the best submission will get a prize.

The more creative, the better the prize. Prizes will be along the lines of free kits, swag, and anything else we can think up (which probably involves chocolate, coffee, or both).

So get out the video camera, have some fun and make us laugh!

We’ve been working hard this last month in preparation for the 2011 ASM meeting that just passed. It was a great event and we very much enjoyed meeting everyone at our booth. We love talking to you and hearing feedback and comments about the products.

At ASM this year we introduced a new product to the environmental microbiology community: The PowerWater Sterivex DNA Isolation Kit

Today I’d like to tell you more about this cool product and why we developed it.

What are Sterivex Water Filters? Read the rest of this entry »

It’s getting closer to the General Meeting of the American Society of Microbiology in New Orleans (May 22-25).  We are excited to be authoring two posters this year. 

We are also very pleased to announce that the undergraduate student who is the primary author of the second poster, Joe Lahti, from the University of Minnesota was awarded an ASM Student Travel Grant for his work. Congrats Joe!!

Below are our abstracts. Let us know if you are presenting a poster or were selected for a talk and used MO BIO products. We would love to come visit you during your session and tell other scientists to check out your work! Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve had the great pleasure of working directly with this week’s featured scientist, Bradley Tolar. I met Bradley at the ISME conference in 2010 and was intrigued by all of the exciting marine microbiology work under study in the Hollibaugh lab at the University of Georgia.  Since then we’ve been collaborating on projects together.  One of  them involves evaluating a new product planned for launch in May and the other is a potential new method for soil research that would be a huge benefit to the field (when we figure it out).

I have been especially impressed with Bradley’s project management skills and his mentorship of the undergraduate student who has been working on the projects. It is clear that Bradley is getting excellent training for a future in academic or industrial science! Read the rest of this entry »