> The project started out as a typical semester in the SEA-PHAGES program—an investigative curriculum where undergraduates isolate bacteriophages from environme

> The project started out as a typical semester in the SEA-PHAGES program—an investigative curriculum where undergraduates isolate bacteriophages from environmental samples, send them out for sequencing, and then use bioinformatics tools to analyze the results. When the sequencing lab at the University of Pittsburgh reported contamination in the sample from UMBC expected to contain the MindFlayer phage, the journey began. I don't get what's going on here. It sounds like they have sampled something, and somehow frozen the scene. They see something interesting (via "sequencing" + bioinformatics tools) that showed up as "contamination", and then they get a microscope (transmission electron microscope (TEM)) on that very scene. But how is it possible to isolate and perfectly 'freeze' some sample, such that it can be analysed twice or more with different tools? Are we talking about a physical sample, or are we talking about data output from software? If anyone knows what this all means and can translate it to English, that would be appreciated!