Looking ahead to 2014 — We want to hear from YOU!

Time sure flies when we’re having fun, doesn’t it? With 2013 winding down, we think it’s a good time to pause and take stock of where we’ve been this last year.

A few highlights:

• We’ve sent hundreds, nay thousands (!), of swabs off to Colorado for DNA sequencing to identify the tiny organisms living on the surfaces of homes. Noah Fierer recently shared an exciting update about those analyses:

1000 homes, 2000 samples, 353 million 16S rRNA reads, 319 million ITS reads. The project with @YourWild_Life is keeping @jonleff busy

— Noah Fierer (@NoahFierer) December 10, 2013

We’re now furiously plowing through these piles of data and look forward to returning some meaningful results to Wild Life of Our Homes participants soon.

• We deployed tiny little data-loggers to 51 homes across the US (1 in each state + the District of Columbia) to help us better understand the climate conditions inside and outside of homes.

• We (finally) wrapped up DNA sequencing on our last batch of belly button samples (we have over 500 participants in that study!) and have begun to write up and share the results.

• We received nearly 200 new reports of camel crickets in the last few months and embarked on a little public science experiment, writing a paper online, in real time.

• We launched a new education initiative with the goal of engaging 10,000 teachers to bring real science to classrooms, particularly in middle schools: education.yourwildlife.org

It’s been a busy year, and we’re looking forward to BIG THINGS in 2014, particularly on the results and visualization front.

But more importantly, to make 2014 a truly awesome year, we need your help – Would you please take a moment to complete a short survey and share your thoughts about Your Wild Life?

 Your Wild Life Participant Feedback Survey

Your feedback will help us improve how we share the news, stories, and research about the biodiversity in our daily lives.

Wishing you and yours all the best in the New Year!

Thanks to Lea Shell for creating the festive snowflake in the header out of miscellaneous lab supplies — Do you recognize the swabs and climate dataloggers?