Just a quick post here about an interesting microbial detective story in the built environment of a whiskey distillery. The researcher profiled in this story was trying to identify a fungus that thrives on the ethanol released from the distillery process. This article from Wired magazine also talks about the concept of “urban extremophiles”, pointing …
Good to see this summary come out: Microbiomes of built environments: 2011 symposium highlights and workgroup recommendations – Corsi – 2012 – Indoor Air – Wiley Online Library. Even better that it freely available, though I am a bit dubious of the Wiley Open Access Option as applied by this journal since on the PDF there …
Of relevance to microBEnet: National Institute of Building Sciences Event Announcement – AIA National Convention Programs Highlight Building Science. The meeting is next week (May 17-19 in DC). Not sure how much online presence the meeting will have but will try to post any details I can come up with.
The Genomic Standards Consortium recently held its 13th Workshop from March 5-7 in Shenzhen, China, where advances in genomics research were discussed in close proximity to the massive sequencing power of BGI. As a workshop participant, I found the meeting presentations to be both informative and exciting; the data spoke for itself, and many projects …
A meeting report from the 13th GSC meeting has been published. Report of the 13th Genomic Standards Consortium Meeting, Shenzhen, China, March 4—7, 2012. | Gilbert | Standards in Genomic Sciences. A PDF is available here. The meeting including a session we at microBEnet sponsored on microbiology of the built environment. More detail on the meeting will be …
Just a short post here about “art meets science”. A project at UC San Diego has created “flashing bacterial signs” (also called “biopixels”) that synchronously flash on and off through controlled fluorescence. Which is pretty cool by itself, and reminds me a bit of the stunt with the Contagion promo. See the original paper here. …
Built_environment-metadata-terms-v51-2_May_2014 This is a Guest Post from Lynn Schriml. The MIxS-BE metadata package was presented on March 7, 2012, as part of the Microbiology of the Built Environment session sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation at GSC13 in Shenzhen, China. The Sloan Foundation has established the Microbiology of the Built Environment (BE) to uncover …
Just a short post about bacteria literally converting the built environment into the natural environment. There are numerous specialized bacteria currently eating the Titanic, including one called Halomonas titanicae. They’re converting the steel and iron into rust and the whole thing may be gone in a few decades. Bad news for history buffs, good news …
This article (Mutant space microbes attack ISS: Munch metal, may crack glass) has some issues (e.g., much of it is anecdotal and hard to tell how scientific or even robust much of the detailed are) but it is a very interesting example of the potential importance of microbes in the built environment. You may not care …
Job posting for a part time, online only research assistant position helping to catalog information from the primary literature relating to the microbial ecology of the built environment. Long description from Hal Levin, the contact person for this position: “We’d like to find a student well along in their academic career (grad student or undergrad …