The National Toxicology Program (NTP) just released an updated fact sheet on mold in the built environment. Very handy introduction to the subject, including some information on current research on the topic. Thanks to James Scott for bringing this to our attention.
(From Linsey Marr at Virginia Tech) We are seeking a post-doctoral researcher for a project to develop a nanotechnology-based sensor for airborne viruses. The ideal candidate will have experience with experimental techniques related to the generation, sampling, and detection of specific microorganisms in bioaerosols. The post-doctoral researcher will be co-advised by Dr. Linsey Marr and …
I’ve put together a collection of photos from the first few sampling events for our microbes in space project (Project MERCCURI). This will be updated as we receive photos from events over the next 6 months or so.
A reminder from the conference organizers that the meeting in May is fast approaching and that everyone should have their travel arrangements in order. The preliminary program is online and more information will be coming soon. (This conference is by invitation only)
So last night was the first large-scale public microbial sampling event for project MERCCURI (a.k.a. Microbes in Spaaaace!). Around 330 teachers from the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) conference bought tickets to the game. After the game many of them came down on the court to take photos, shoot baskets and sample the microbes on …
This article, about “Moving the Office Outside” talks about the energy savings and psychological benefits of creating outdoor office spaces. Sadly microbes don’t get a mention, even though there’s an ever-growing body of work showing that indoor air is less healthy than outdoor air (both in terms of chemical composition and microbial makeup).
Today our Project MERCCURI team gave a presentation at the National Science Teacher Association (NSTA) meeting in San Antonio. We talked mostly about the project, but also about ways that teachers could incorporate microbiology of the built environment in their classrooms. There’s a lot of interest in taking the kinds of work being done in …
A nice article in Forbes talking about microbes in general and about Jessica Green’s recent work on visualizations of microbial communities in the built environment (see her TED talk here).
At microBEnet we’ve had a long standing interest in citizen science in microbiology (and are finally doing some ourselves). If you’re interested in the idea of citizen science, check out this webinar on how to recruit citizens scientists.
Nice study by Norm Pace’s group looking at microbes present in the air in New York City subway systems. They didn’t find any organisms of public health concern, and showed that the ventilation and mixing of outside air appear to work well. This work does provide an important baseline of data for evaluating the effects …