I was on vacation early this week when the news broke that PacBio has acquired HMW DNA solid phase extraction kit maker Circulomics -- the kind of vacation that I need where the scenery is gorgeous and the internet access terrible. Where solid phase means monumental slabs of granite with diabase intrusions being attacked by a high salt liquid phase. Where I actually sighted Atlantic Puffins and didn't once think about sequencing their genomes ('til now!). But now I'm back to work and genomics.