I thought I would post this picture so you can see a little bit of what goes on in the lab. When we're collecting DNA data from our shark and ray species, the first step is to shear the DNA into small pieces so its easier for us to sequence. That machine in the top left does that job for us, it's called an ultrasonicator and uses sound energy to chop up the DNA. You can see an image of how the DNA looks once its been fragmented in the bottom right. It's basically a smear which tells me there are lots of pieces all around the same size, which is a good thing! I worked on some interesting species this day, including a new species of whaler shark, Carcharhinus humani, which was just described a few weeks ago.