Your Wild Life Team

Hey Folks, We are beginning a project to survey arthropods in homes around the world (through iNaturalist). Give it a go. Do you have species in your home we haven’t yet seen in other homes? inaturalist.org/projects/never…

Using this incredible collection, we answered a long-standing question in bread baking: are there unique sourdough microbes in specific geographic locations? Spoiler alert: the answer is no! There is nothing special (from a microbial perspective) about San Francisco sourdough.

Nestled inside each of these packages was a unique community of microbes, each one holding tiny clues to the history of how it had been maintained and who's lives it had touched. #scienceofsourdough #sourdough

We have created a companion resource for those who submitted a #sourdoughstarter for our #GlobalSourdoughProject. We want to make sure you know as much about your starter as we do! storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/211aac…

And, if you would prefer to HEAR the sourdough data, artist Jude Casseday has produced an incredible album of soundscapes based on the data and findings! #sciart dejacusse.blog/2020/12/05/str…

Our Global Sourdough Project results are published! A warm and heartfelt thank you to everyone who contributed - whether you filled out the survey or sent us a sample of your starter or emailed insightful questions. We are so excited to share what we discovered! #sourdough

We are SO grateful for all the bakers that sent us samples of their sourdough starters. They provided us with rich metadata and unprecedented sampling resolution. Here is a pile of samples that @landisea processed when they arrived at the lab.

@maii0965 Wonderful! Welcome!

@E_Carlen @acer_aceae Fascinating. My first terrible thought: perhaps some fungicide contaminated the grain. But it might be a difference in nutrient availability? Does it just grow more slowly, but eventually reach the same lofty heights? I'm calling in reinforcements: @AnneAMadden @RRobDunn

@acer_aceae Ok, glad it isn't just me! Now I'm wondering what the difference is between the artisanal flour and industrial flour. Any ideas @YourWild_Life?

Has anyone noticed that their sourdough starter prefers 1a certain flour? On the left my starter was fed basic white flour, on the right, fed with white flour from a small mill in North Carolina. Tape line shows starter at feeding cc @pastramimachine @vsbuffalo @ejschwarzkopf

@yeipijotape Love watching this daily progression! Especially the differences in aroma between the different flour types the first few days. @AnneAMadden @RRobDunn

Get powered up with #STEAMSquad! This week, learn about parasites and pathogens, and help count animals on the East African savanna with @the_zooniverse ! Perfect for middle schoolers! #CitizenScience #STEMeducation steamsquad.org

@BeauPoete Love it!!

@karenedaniels Congrats on the new starter! You can still submit your data, if you like, since you dont have to collect any measurements until the second week anyhow.

I started one last week ... so my data collection for this citizen-science project would be off, but the good news is I'm already ready to use it! (It already made me some tasty waffles .....)

@msuberrybugs @RRobDunn Indeed! I wouldn't recommend using the discard for cooking when you are first making a starter though. I would wait until you have a starter that is consistently rising and falling between feedings. A really good point to add once we include a "Maintaining your starter" page.

We have un-officially launched our new Wild Sourdough project! The official launch is April 16th, but we have a hard time keeping secrets. robdunnlab.com/projects/wilds… #wildsourdough #stayhome #sourdough

We are launching a free mini-seminar series on fermentation! #fermentology101

Join our team! The Dunn Lab is hiring a Research Technician (MA or PhD level) to work on a global forensic project using insect e-DNA. More info: robdunnlab.com/get-involved/j… @RRobDunn @NCStateAEC

@brian_M2 Its not just you, unfortunately. nytimes.com/2018/11/27/mag…

New paper out this week! We thought that kids living close to nature might be more fond of local wildlife than kids living in urban places. Turns out we were wrong. Frogs are always greener on the other side of the pond, no matter where you live.

Our @inaturalist #neverhomealone project is being featured as a #wonderchallenge this month! Great excuse to look for life indoors, share your discoveries, and enter to win one of the prize pack! bit.ly/2W9AJoe

Some of the faces behind The Sourdough Project! The team just held their third "Sourdough Summit" to discuss results. #publicscience #citizenscience #thesourdoughproject