“Strategy for American Innovation” – feedback being requested – drown them in microbe-themed emails

Well, it looks like the White House is requesting feedback on funding priorities relating to Science and Technology topics.  See  Federal Register | Strategy for American Innovation.  In the summary they write: The Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Economic Council request public comments to provide input into an upcoming update of …

An excellent example for any funding agency: Leukemia & Lymphoma Research goes full #openaccess

Great news here: Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research pledges to make its research open to all.  Matt Kaiser  – the Head of Research has written this up in a blog post.  It is worth reading the whole article.  I note – I really hope that the Sloan Foundation can take this approach in the “microbiology of the …

When microbial contamination becomes a secret

Personally, I find this article pretty disturbing: Iowa City VA patients not told about bacteria problem.  Basically, the story is, that the bacterium that causes Legionnaires disease (Legionella pneumophila) has been found in the water system at a VA hospital in Iowa.  And the managers of the hospital say “But they said they’ve been able to control the …

Some interesting new papers on functional analysius of metagenomics

Some new papers that may be of interest to people: FOAM (Functional Ontology Assignments for Metagenomes): a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) database with environmental focus. Statistical Methods for Functional Metagenomic Analysis Based on Next-Generation Sequencing Data PhD thesis from Pookhao, Naruekamol Profile Hidden Markov Models for the Detection of Viruses within Metagenomic Sequence Data Parallel-META 2.0: Enhanced …

Collection of papers on “The Science of Science Communication”

Just got pointed to this by Sharon Strauss, the chair of the Evolution and Ecology department here at UC Davis: The Science of Science Communication II Sackler Colloquium.  This is a collection of papers from a colloquium held in Septment 2013.  Slides and videos of the talks are available online. The papers and links (copied from the …

Expanding the breadth of topics covered at microBEnet

Just a quick post here.  Some may have noticed that more of the posts here at microBEnet than say, a year ago, are not focused explicitly about “microbiology of the Built Environment” (MoBE).  They are instead sometimes focused on microbiology, history of microbiology, architecture, methods in microbial ecology, bioinformatics tools, and more.  There is a reason …

FDA Announces 2014 Food Safety Challenge on detecting Salmonella in produce (w/ $500K to be awarded)

Well this is very interesting. The FDA has announced a competition: U.S. Food and Drug Administration | 2014 Food Safety Challenge. From their site Summary While the American food supply is among the safest in the world, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 1 in 6 Americans is sickened by foodborne illness …

Research Consortium on Design and Health in Architecture announced w/ call for proposals

Posting this press release I got via email:   AIA Foundation, American Institute of Architects and Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture Launch Research Consortium on Design and Health Request for Proposals Due October 15 For University-led Research  Contact: John Schneidawind 202-626-7457 johnschneidawind@aia.org http://twitter.com/AIA_Media For immediate release: Washington, D.C. — Sept. 16, 2014 — The AIA Foundation, along …