If I had known of this in August!

The title of a recent paper that is available at the Genome Research web site:  “Windshield splatter analysis with the Galaxy metagenomic pipeline”

I could have provided a kilogram or more of sample from my recent move-in trip.

The abstract of this paper:

How many species inhabit our immediate surroundings? A straightforward collection technique suitable for answering this question is known to anyone who has ever driven a car at highway speeds. The windshield of a moving vehicle is subjected to numerous insect strikes and can be used as a collection device for representative sampling. Unfortunately the analysis of biological material collected in that manner, as with most metagenomic studies, proves to be rather demanding due to the large number of required tools and considerable computational infrastructure. In this study, we use organic matter collected by a moving vehicle to design and test a comprehensive pipeline for phylogenetic profiling of metagenomic samples that includes all steps from processing and quality control of data generated by next-generation sequencing technologies to statistical analyses and data visualization. To the best of our knowledge, this is also the first publication that features a live online supplement providing access to exact analyses and workflows used in the article.

The citation:

Kosakovsky Pond S, Wadhawan S, Chiaromonte F, Ananda G, Chung WY, Taylor J, Nekrutenko A; The Galaxy Team. Windshield splatter analysis with the Galaxy metagenomic pipeline.  Genome Res., Published in Advance October 9, 2009, doi: 10.1101/gr.094508.109.