Hi there, can someone please explain to me why when doing RT (qualitative) PCR, you would use a target AND reference gene to check for the presence of products? What is the purpose of the target gene?? TIA

Hi everyone. I've been thinking about this for a long time and lately with the terrifying implications of climate change being felt, I feel compelled to explore this idea. Using crispr technology, is it within the realms of possibility to isolate useful sequences from chloroplasts to convert sunlight into ATP and the sequences from electrocytes (specialist cells in electric eels et al) to take that ATP and convert it to stored electricity. I have always been fascinated by the idea of biological solar panels, but with crispr it seems to me, forest power generation is perhaps possible. Speculating even more wildly, mycelium may play a role in collection. Anyway, I welcome your thoughts and recognise this is wildly speculative. david

A new paper on the microbial community of tardigrades: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00248-017-1134-4