Happy Peer Review Week!

It’s Peer Review Week this week (15th-19th September 2025), and, here in FERG, we are big advocates of the importance of peer review! Peer review is one of the most vital pillars upholding scientific rigour and excellence, but it takes a community to keep it alive! Alongside encouraging and supporting one another to engage inContinueContinue reading “Happy Peer Review Week!”

FERG News September 2025

Another month of fieldwork and fun here in FERG! Alongside all of the various field experiments well under way, we’ve had some exciting adventures to conferences and courses, some new articles and protocols, and even a new (non-human) member of the group! New FERGers Welcome to our new trusty fieldwork trolley, Selina Go-mez! She’s beenContinueContinue reading “FERG News September 2025”

FERG News August 2025

After a quieter newsletter last month, with everyone out in the field, stuck into their lab work or away at conferences, we’ve had all sorts coming through in July! From new papers, through graduations, to various field adventures, read on for a full update! We have a fun puzzle based on degenerate DNA sequences thisContinueContinue reading “FERG News August 2025”

Primer time: a rollercoaster ride through metabarcoding PCR primer design

This was originally posted on Biocoenosis, a blog jointly run by Jordan and FERG collaborator Max Tercel. If you want a short synopsis on metabarcoding (and dietary metabarcoding more specifically), plough on, but if you’re here for some tips and tricks, scroll down to the PCR primer design subheading. Now more than ever, PCR hasContinueContinue reading “Primer time: a rollercoaster ride through metabarcoding PCR primer design”