Bob Kuhn
@kuhnbobio.bsky.social
High school biotech teacher at Innovation Academy HS Interested in Wolbachia, arthropod/microbe symbiosis, and soil phages. Currently studying sex ratio distorters in A vulgare pullbugs in the US. https://sites.google.com/view/room223/classroom-research
Our Urban Pillbug Project funding site is live. Help us out if you can. No donation too small. If you live in a large city and would like to donate pillbugs this spring, let me know. experiment.com/projects/urb...
Urban Pillbug Project: Measuring Genetic Diversity of City Pillbugs and Their Symbionts
The pillbug Armadillidium vulgare is a common isopod generalist decomposer in most natural landscapes. Past European and US studies have looked at the genetic diversity and frequency of A. vulgare and...
experiment.com
November 1, 2025 at 11:54 PM
Our Urban Pillbug Project funding site is live. Help us out if you can. No donation too small. If you live in a large city and would like to donate pillbugs this spring, let me know. experiment.com/projects/urb...
I have launched a new student project on experiment.com and we are looking for backers. The project budget is small so with your help we can do some cool science. We are also looking for city pillbug donations. Comment of interested. experiment.com/citypillbugs
Urban Pillbug Project: Measuring Genetic Diversity of City Pillbugs and Their Symbionts
The pillbug Armadillidium vulgare is a common isopod generalist decomposer in most natural landscapes. Past European and US studies have looked at the genetic diversity and frequency of A. vulgare and...
experiment.com
October 29, 2025 at 11:41 AM
I have launched a new student project on experiment.com and we are looking for backers. The project budget is small so with your help we can do some cool science. We are also looking for city pillbug donations. Comment of interested. experiment.com/citypillbugs
Coming soon. Want to contribute?
October 24, 2025 at 10:58 AM
Coming soon. Want to contribute?
Sampled the Winogradsky column today in 6 places and extracted DNA. Looking forward to seeing how much DNA we extracted and Nanopore 16S metabarcoding on Friday.
October 22, 2025 at 10:56 PM
Sampled the Winogradsky column today in 6 places and extracted DNA. Looking forward to seeing how much DNA we extracted and Nanopore 16S metabarcoding on Friday.
How your email finds me
September 30, 2025 at 8:00 PM
How your email finds me
Colors starting to emerge.
September 30, 2025 at 11:53 AM
Colors starting to emerge.
Column is starting to compact. Water rose and we took about a cup to filter for 16S Nanopore metabarcoding. Some brown spots emerging and bottom of column getting darker.
September 22, 2025 at 12:17 PM
Column is starting to compact. Water rose and we took about a cup to filter for 16S Nanopore metabarcoding. Some brown spots emerging and bottom of column getting darker.
Winogradsky column is go!
September 18, 2025 at 10:28 PM
Winogradsky column is go!
Almost done with the large Winogradsky column. We have some leakage but sealant should fix . The sampling ports went in well. Hopefully Thursday we can add our mud. 😀
September 13, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Almost done with the large Winogradsky column. We have some leakage but sealant should fix . The sampling ports went in well. Hopefully Thursday we can add our mud. 😀
I did 5 trials today using different Qiagen DNeasy Blood and Tissue extraction protocols for pillbug heads. Also did a Zymo bead bashing for comparison. Overall DNA yields from Qubit varied per method (mostly nuclear DNA) but CO1 PCR amplicons were similar across tests. One sample did not amplify.
August 23, 2025 at 10:04 PM
I did 5 trials today using different Qiagen DNeasy Blood and Tissue extraction protocols for pillbug heads. Also did a Zymo bead bashing for comparison. Overall DNA yields from Qubit varied per method (mostly nuclear DNA) but CO1 PCR amplicons were similar across tests. One sample did not amplify.
A casualty of our district’s cell phone ban is the loss of quick, quality pictures in the lab. Digital cameras really can’t compare to the phone camera- especially with agar plates. Tips welcome.
August 21, 2025 at 11:38 PM
A casualty of our district’s cell phone ban is the loss of quick, quality pictures in the lab. Digital cameras really can’t compare to the phone camera- especially with agar plates. Tips welcome.
