Good Morning America is taking on bacteria. Bacteria that are found indoors. The report: GMA Germ Test Shows Public Seats Full of Bacteria – ABC News has some interesting bits and the video is nice in many ways. The bottom line – they found bacteria (by culturing) in all sorts of indoor locations. And they did …
When people hear “microbiology of the built environment” they tend to focus on buildings. But the built environment also includes things like trains, cars, planes, even the space station where some cool microbiology work has taken place. When looking for work on the microbiology of these environments I came across a small, non-peer reviewed study …
So I’m going to stick with a theme here and try to talk about beneficial uses of microbes in the built environment (like stabilizing the ground underneath buildings to mitigate the effects of earthquakes). Today I came across the research from a group of students at Newcastle University who designed a strain of Bacillus that …
Well, some folks from microBEnet, including me, will be at the American Society for Microbiology meeting. I have posted some suggestions for how to follow what’s going on at the meeting on my “Tree of Life” blog here: The Tree of Life: Some general tips for how to keep up w/ American Society for Microbiology Mtg …
There is a fascinating article by Richard Grant at F1000: Lobster-Pot Science – The Scientist – Magazine of the Life Sciences. It is about how two researchers at U. T Austin came together to study bacterial communication in miniature built structures. I am a bit overwhelmed with prepping for a meeting I have tomorrow so …
Much of the work on microbiology of the built environment focuses attention on issues relating to humans. But all those other animals that spend time in built environments are important parts of the bigger picture. Animals certainly influence what microbes are found in the built environment. And they are important customers of knowledge about the …
Some new publications were just released by the CDC’s Journal Emerging Infectious Diseases relating to the cholera epidemic in Haiti. Understanding the Cholera Epidemic, Haiti Implications of the Introduction of Cholera to Haiti Vibrio cholerae in Traveler from Haiti to Canada I note I wrote about this recently in regard to the UN report discussing …
An automated search I have of Google News for “emerging infectious diseases” pulled up this: Orkin Issues Statement on Recent Bedbugs Study. In the press release Orkin discusses how they will help people deal with this new issue of bedbugs possibly carrying MRSA. The press release is actually not so awfully worded (compared to many). And …
Found a meeting abstract that intrigued me:Distribution of Airborne Bacteria and Fungi in the Korean High Speed Train Indoor. The abstract is below: Background/Aims: It is known that the airborne bacteria and fungi can be the cause of a variety of infectious diseases as well as allergic and toxic effects. The purpose of this study …
Just a quick one here. The Google News archive has all sorts of interesting stuff in there. Much of it is not fully free / in the open but it is still interesting. For example, – check out this article reporting the first association of a bacterial association with “Legion disease”: St. Petersburg Times – Google …