Biofinder detects biological remains in Green River fish fossils from Eocene epoch at video speed.

The "Search for life", which may be extinct or extant on other planetary bodies is one of the major goals of NASA planetary exploration missions. Finding such evidence of biological residue in a vast planetary landscape is an enormous challenge. We have developed a highly sensitive instrument, the "Compact Color Biofinder", which can locate minute amounts of biological material in a large area at video speed from a standoff distance. Here we demonstrate the efficacy of the Biofinder to detect fossils that still possess strong bio-fluorescence signals from a collection of samples. Fluorescence images taken by the Biofinder instrument show that all Knightia spp. fish fossils analysed from the Green River formation (Eocene, 56.0-33.9 Mya) still contain considerable amounts of biological residues. The biofluorescence images support the fact that organic matter has been well preserved in the Green River formation, and thus, not diagenetically replaced (replaced by minerals) over such a significant timescale. We further corroborated results from the Biofinder fluorescence imagery through Raman and attenuated total reflection Fourier-transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopies, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), and fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM). Our findings confirm once more that biological residues can survive millions of years, and that using biofluorescence imaging effectively detects these trace residues in real time. We anticipate that fluorescence imaging will be critical in future NASA missions to detect organics and the existence of life on other planetary bodies.

Comprehensive temperature controller with internet connectivity for plant growth experiments.

The experimental control of temperature is key to many scientific and applied endeavors, particularly for studying the effects of greenhouse-gas driven warming on plant performance. Unfortunately, numerous nuisances in the control of temperature for plants renders most commercially available controllers unsuitable or too expensive. Here we describe a simple to use but comprehensive temperature controller for plant growth experiments in enclosed spaces like nurseries or chambers. The device uses Pulse Width Modulation to control independent cooling and heating elements over a broad range of amperages, which minimizes or eliminates temperature overshoot and ensures precise and accurate temperature control (i.e., sensor accuracy = 0.1 °C; controller accuracy = 0.3 °C.). The device incorporates an internal clock for controlling temperature (and growth lights) concurrent with diurnal cycles, and it has an integrated Wi-Fi chip to transfer sensor data to a web-page, where data are displayed in real time. The device uses off-the-shelf parts and can be built for around $USD63. The controller can be integrated with other reported controllers (e.g., soil moisture and CO2) to produce an affordable multi-system controller necessary for complex factorial experiments, which hopefully can help to accelerate our understanding about the impacts of climatic variables on plant performance.