The Alfred P. Sloan foundation recently announced the funding of a microbiome of the built environment study (MoBE) titled “Longitudinal assessment of the influence of lifestyle homogenization on the MoBE in a cohort of United States Air Force Cadets”. This research program is a collaborative effort between Dr. Christopher Lowry (University of Colorado at Boulder), …
Just wanted to remind everyone that the deadline for postdoctoral fellowship applications through the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation funded Microbiology of the Built Environment (MoBE) program is September 1, 2016. The program provides support for postdoctoral researchers in laboratories currently engaged in research in the U.S. or Canada. Three awards of $120,000 each will be made in …
Worth a look – everyone should get their Art and Microbes fix on: 10 Ways To Boost Your Microbiota On Etsy | the vexed muddler
Microbes of old Early evidence for travel with infectious diseases along the Silk Road: Intestinal parasites from 2000 year-old personal hygiene sticks in a latrine at Xuanquanzhi Relay Station in China — Hui-Yuan Yeh — Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports ($31.50) The Silk Road has often been blamed for the spread of infectious diseases in …
Just a quick post about the fact that researchers from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) are sending radiation resistant (even radiation-loving) fungi for some experiments on the International Space Station (ISS). They are looking for changes that occur in microgravity after growth for 14 days on the ISS with respect to ground control strains. Very …
Just a quick post here. There is a new paper of interest: Teaching indoor environmental quality – Nazaroff – 2016 – Indoor Air – Wiley Online Library It leads off with How is a new generation of professionals to be educated about indoor environmental quality (IEQ)? If this field is to become firmly established, we need …
So both Hal Levin and I have posted and/or commented on the topic of plants “cleaning” the air in buildings. Most of what’s out there is either anecdotal or based on an old NASA study that would require hundreds of plants in a home to make any appreciable difference. Here’s a couple microBEnet posts on …
Just a quick post here. Multiple stories out about the Laying Hen Housing Research Project by the Coalition for Sustainable Egg Supply that maybe of interest. From: Hen housing trade offs: Food safety, workers and consumers | Food Safety News As it turns out, the food stores and restaurant chains promising to sell only cage-free eggs …
On the heels of our 5000th citation, the QIIME 2 alpha release is now live and ready for testing! The best way to see where we are with QIIME 2 is to watch my SciPy 2016 presentation on QIIME 2 (the slides are available here). In this talk I give a bottom-up description of QIIME …
Rob Dunn is one of the true pioneers of Citizen Science and in Citizen Science projects involving microbes. And here is another fascinating project from Dunn and colleagues. The Wild Life of Showerheads Photo by Lea Shell- Rob Dunn Lab When Anton Von Leeuwenhoek, the first microbiologist, began to study microscopic life, he did so …