The Today Show did a follow up piece after we identified a couple of bacteria collected on their set, one of which will go up to the International Space Station in February (see the first piece here). I tried to craft the message here that microbes are everywhere and most of them are harmless or …
The Today Show on NBC collected some built environment samples to send to space with Project MERCCURI this morning. Here’s the video of them swabbing the set and the primary camera. Very cool… Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Just got the good news that microBEnet will continue to be funded by the Sloan Program in the Microbiology of the Built Environment for the next two years. After three years of attempting to help the field with “curation, communication, collaboration, connection” we have taken this as an opportunity to re-assess our direction and goals. …
The Sloan Foundation has just announced their 2013 Microbiology of the Built Environment Postdoctoral Fellows. The awards, along with the titles of the projects are below. Congrats all! Aaron J. Prussin at Virginia Tech, co-advisors Linsey Marr and Kyle Bibby (Pittsburg) “Bacterial and viral microbiomes of daycare centers” Anne. A. Madden at University of Colorado, …
In the last 24 hours I saw articles with the following three headlines: My dishwasher is trying to kill me: Extreme conditions suit pathogenic fungus. Compost Harbors Legionnaire’s Disease Bacteria Bacteria, Mold Found In Vacuum Dust You’re not safe anywhere! And people wonder why microbes get such a bad rap. Yes, of course some microbes …
I’ve had a number of conversations over the last decade that have gone something like this: Other person: “I totally agree that overuse of antibiotics and antibacterials is a problem” Me: “Do you realize how pervasive they are? They’re in toys, laundry detergent, hand soap, cosmetics, deodorants, you name it. In fact, I’ll bet there’s …
Just a quick post here to point people to a resource we just recently became aware of called the “Building Information Knowledgebase (BRIKbase)”. From their “About” page: A collaborative effort of the American Institute of Architects and the National Institute of Building Sciences, the Building Research Information Knowledgebase (BRIK) is an interactive portal offering online …
Starting in the fall of 2012 we began a second project to involve undergraduates (and a high school student) in real research that relates to the microbiology of the built environment. This time we looked at biogeography and succession in microbial communities found in aquariums. A description of the project can be found here and …
Just a brief post here to point people to a blog post on the Science Cheerleader website which describes the efforts of our Project MERCCURI team to team up with Pop Warner to collect samples for the ISS, for the Earth Microbiome Project, and to expand the educational reach of this citizen science effort. Read …
Next in our “People Behind the Science” series is Kyle Bibby from the University of Pittsburgh. In this interview he talks about his future work on premise plumbing and the hospital microbiome project. Transcript of interview: