Well, just saw this: Gadget Lust: Keeping the Germs (and the Hypochondria) at Bay. I know this article is partly an attempt to be funny (which I think it succeeded at) but even so, the level of germophobia is pretty astonishing. Actually, though I cringe at germophobia many of the things discussed in this article are perhaps …
Announcement: Sloan Microbiology of the Built Environment Data Analysis Workshop (secrets of QIIME, VAMPS and QIITA) January 6-7, 2015 Application Deadline — October 30, 2014 Progress on the microbiology of the built environment, especially through amplicon studies, has been extremely rapid. However, analyzing and combining datasets has been increasingly challenging, especially as investigators use …
Oh my. This story is littlered with so much over the top germophobia I do not know where to begin: The Dirt on Your Sponge – NYTimes.com. The story, by Penelope Green, discusses how Tod Maitland and Matthew Flannery have developed a sponge cleaning system called “SpongeBath”. This is going on sale on Amazon and Bed Bath and …
Nice new paper that may be of interest: PLOS Pathogens: From Dandruff to Deep-Sea Vents: Malassezia-like Fungi Are Ecologically Hyper-diverse by Anthony Amend. Malassezia are commonly found in many studies of human skin and when they have been found in other places sometimes it is thought that they are vagrants having come from the skin of humans or …
If you have any interest in large scale microbial ecology – either to do it yourself or to make use of the results or to just watch it as it happens, you should read this paper: BMC Biology | Full text | The Earth Microbiome project: successes and aspirations. It outlines the history and goals and …
There was a very interesting artilce in the New York Times on August 21 bu Michael Kimmelman: In Redesigned Room, Hospital Patients May Feel Better Already. The article focuses on a move by the University Medical Center of Princeton to redesign hospital rooms. And Kimmelman discusses a variety of issues associated with hospital design. And there were …
Just a quick post here. Got alerted to this paper by Google Scholar updates: A Combined Approach to Assess the Microbial Contamination of the Archimedes Palimpsest. And I was drawn into it immediately by the first line in the introduction The transmission of ancient texts through the ages appears to be an almost miraculous event …
Well, here is another benefit of automated Google Scholar searches. I think it is unlikely I would have found these new papers without such searches but these are fascinating and directly relevant to many aspects of work we are doing on Project MERCCURI. A series of papers on microbial ecolog and space travel in the …
These are just awesome: 4 Ventilation Quotes That Will Rock Your IAQ World. Maybe they are familiar to people who work on indoor air quality but I had never heard them . Thanks to the Energy Vanguard Blog for posting these. I particularly like “If there is a pile of manure in a space, do not try …
Well, just got notified via automated Google Scholar searches of a new book in the NCBI Book collection. This one seems of relevance both to studies of microbiology of the built environment and to some recent news stories: The Airliner Cabin Environment and the Health of Passengers and Crew. It is a report from the National Research Council …