Welcome to the CHAOS: Where Microbes, Metal, and Mayhem Collide
The Washburn CHAOS Lab is where science goes feral. We dig into cave sludge, radon zones, and fault lines to hunt extremophiles, track pathogens, and mine the Earth for biochemical gold. Founded by Dr. Rachel Washburn—a Special Ops vet turned geohealth warrior—we fuse omics firepower with field-forged grit. This isn’t clean-room science. It’s chaos with purpose, and we’re coming for the data like it owes us blood.
CHAOS LAB
5/8/20241 min read
Welcome to the Washburn CHAOS Lab—Center for geoHealth and Applied Omics Studies. Where field boots beat lab coats, sequencers run beside stone hammers, and science hits harder than a double-kick breakdown.
We’re stationed out of the Kentucky Geological Survey, but don’t let the address fool you—we operate wherever the Earth refuses to play nice. Our focus? How geology and biology collide. We track how rock, water, and tectonic chaos sculpt microbial life—and what that means for human health. That includes mapping microbiomes in ancient limestone caves, hunting extremophiles in radon-rich soils and fault zones, tracking emergent pathogens in post-industrial terrain, and bioprospecting natural products with clinical potential. It’s part bioinformatics, part biohazard, and all boots-on-the-ground science.
Founded by Dr. Rachel Washburn—an Air Force Special Operations veteran who swapped combat intelligence for microbial warfare—the lab blends military precision with scientific rebellion. We run on grit, chaos, and caffeine. We’re not here to look clean or act academic. We’re here to get the data that matters and make it count.
Whether we’re analyzing metagenomes in mud-streaked laptops, swabbing biofilms in collapsed karst systems, or throwing axes in the parking lot to decompress after a 16-hour sequencing run, the energy is raw, relentless, and real. CHAOS doesn’t mean disorganized—it means choosing the hard path, pushing past comfort, and refusing to look away from what matters.
We don’t do sterile. We do scars, sweat, and the sharp end of discovery. So if you’re into weird science, high-stakes data, and finding hope in hostile terrain—welcome to the edge.
Follow for updates, breakthroughs, behind-the-scenes grit, and the occasional selfie from somewhere we probably shouldn’t be standing.
CHAOS Lab: where geology meets biology, and the soundtrack is always loud.
Feral scientists thrive.