We’ve posted previously about the results of the microbial playoffs in space (microbenet post here, and project website here). And while it’s fun to compare the growth of a microbe representing the Raiders to one representing the 49ers (Raiders won that one)… there’s a more serious question being asked here. We wanted to know what …
From May 13-14 2015 we hosted a “Live/Dead Workshop” here at UC Davis where we basically discussed a number of issues related to the topic of figuring out which bacteria are alive/viable in a given microbial community. This is particularly important in the built environment where we suspect that many (most?) microbes are dead and …
Another funding opportunity from the Sloan Foundation for postdocs working in the (broadly defined) microbiology of the built environment. A full copy of the RFP is below or can be found here. ****************************************************************************** May 1, 2015 Dear Colleague — The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation announces a funding opportunity in its Microbiology of the Built Environment …
Here’s a summary of the conference: Join your colleagues from around the world to participate in platform and poster presentations, symposia, and plenary lectures which highlight the latest advances in aerosol science and technology! Special symposia this year will address the following topics: Primary and Secondary Aerosols from Agricultural Operations; The Role of Water in …
Just got wind of this upcoming meeting, “Microbes in the City: Mapping the Urban Genome” that looks like it has a fantastic series of talks lined up. The meeting is a single day, June 19th, and is hosted by The New York Academy of Sciences and New York University. From the conference website, here’s the …
Finally got around to reading this paper “Drinking water microbiology – from measurement to management”. Seems like the number of culture-independent studies on drinking water keeps going up, it’s been a popular blog topic here in the last year. This review paper does a good job of summarizing the current state of knowledge, even including …
Just a quick announcement that the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has approved another series of “Microbiology of the Built Environment Postdoctoral Fellowships”. See the 2014 call here. There will be three Fellowships in 2015, and another three in 2016. The actual request for proposals (RFP) will come out and be posted on microBEnet around May …
Just got sent this article (thanks Paula Olsiewski) “The Passive House in New York” which is an interesting article about the increasingly popular concept of passive houses. As the name suggests, passive houses maintain an appropriate ambient temperature without heating or cooling, mostly through airtights seals, a lot of insulation, and some sort of air exchange …
Just a quick note to say that the final version of “Gut Check: The Microbiome” Game has been released here on microBEnet. Here’s the summary from the website: Gut Check is a game for 2-4 players where each player attempts to develop a healthy microbiome while interfering with the microbiomes of their opponents. Give your …
An important part of science is owning up to mistakes and doing the best to correct them. A couple months ago we got data from the International Space Station where we had grown up bacteria for our “Microbial Playoffs”. After analyzing the the data we blogged about the winners and disbursed the results far and …