It has been awhile since EBL has formally participated in Open House! This year, we had a fun time debuting our handheld qPCR devices to members of the community. Visitors first entered the ‘Twilight Zone’ of Dr. Colleen Durkin’s lab and walked through marine snow and representative organisms found in the deeper ocean. They were then introduced to a surface water net tow, collected fresh that morning from the Monterey Wharf, teeming with diatoms and dinoflagellates (thanks for cooperating, Mother Nature!). EBL talked about how it’s complicated to pick out specific harmful algal species of interest from that gimmish, and how we are using genetics to do that! Folks were amazed to see we can do this from an iPhone, on a battery powered instrument, in the field!