By Tim Philpott

Tim Philpott is a PhD student in the Faculty of Forestry's Belowground Ecosystem Group at UBC. He is trying to get a handle on the brave new world of metatranscriptomics and apply it to soil ecology, hopefully before a new sequencing technology makes his new skills obsolete.

DISCOVERING THE WORLD BENEATH OUR FEET: THE SOIL MICROBIAL ECOLOGIST’S TOOLBOX IN THE AGE OF THE METAGENOME

It is seven in the morning and your alarm is chirping away, or maybe it’s the morning sun, or the screech of a parent pressed for time. Regardless of the method from which you awake from your slumber, you crawl out of bed and feel that familiar morning growl emanating from your hungry gut. Some might grab a snack and quickly rush out the door, others might ruminate over an elaborate breakfast, and some are content with a simple bowl of oatmeal. This often first and necessary act of the day is repeated by billions of humans around the globe…