This is Kai Rasmussen’s blog.  He is the webmaster for astrobotany.com, and UW molecular biology research undergrad.  These are updates about the process, if you are interested.

Crypto

Astrobotany.com is now astroblockchainbotany.com!!  Just kidding!  Cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin or litecoin have been very hot in the news cycle nowadays.  You may have heard that several companies have been changing their names to include “blockchain” to boost their stocks.  We thought about changing the site name to boost our traffic, but then decided it seemed a little gimmicky.

In fact, I bought around $140 worth of bitcoin back in 2014 during my senior year of high school when it was hovering right around $1200.  After holding it for several months, my economics teacher convinced me that it was a bad investment, so I sold it at a loss.  Thanks, Mr. Kessler.

GeneLab Meta-analysis

Richard asked me to put a new Qlik dashboard on astromicrobiology.com today.  It’s called the “kingdom meta-analysis”.  I’m not sure exactly what it is, but I know GeneLab is moving towards a kingdom classification system.  It’s a work in progress, but you can check it out here.

Engaging Young Scientists

Another scientist and I prepared GCAMP A. thaliana samples for use by field trippers at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery.  Eventually we’ll use those plants for RNA extraction.  This is a great example of how a teaching experience can also yield useful data.

Let’s grow plants in space.