There is a wonderfully essay by Tal Abbady coming out in tomorrow’s New York Times (and available online now). A few years in Spain, and my mother’s last days, helped me see the futility of a sterilized life. Source: Less Disinfectant, More Rioja The essay is about many things, including differences between cultures (pun intended …
Well I am sad I missed this yesterday but there was an April Fools’ joke published in the Western University Gazette that had a microbiology of the built environment angle. “We’re holding Ivey business classes in there to decontaminate the premises,” Chakma said. Source: English Department relocated to broom closets | Spoof | westerngazette.ca “There …
This really made my day / week / month. Marc Edwards has been selected as one of Fortune Magazine’s “World’s Greatest Leaders”. Source: Marc Edwards Here’s what they wrote about him Edwards, a MacArthur “genius” grant recipient, is one of the nation’s top experts on water contamination–and nowhere has his impact been bigger than in …
We are excited because the response to the announcement of the workshop has been awesome! We are expecting approximately 30 grad students and post docs visiting from a wide range of esteemed institutions who besides getting to enjoy sunny San Diego will be getting hands-on training on the secrets of QIIME, VAMPS, and QIITA. To …
Got an e-mail reminder today from the organizers of this NAS meeeting… sounds pretty relevant for people studying the microbiology of the built environment! :) Detailed information below: Register Now: Microbiomes of the Built Environment Meeting Monday, April 11, 10:30 a.m. — 5:00 p.m. EDT The National Academy of Sciences Building, 2101 Constitution Avenue …
Interesting article addressing the risks of using copper in human structures for its antimicrobial qualities. Copper resistant bacteria could prove to be a risk for human health, as certain parts of the human immune system (notably macrophages) utilize it to dispatch potentially dangerous microbes. While many places use copper as a safety measure against harmful …
Anyone considering the possibility of welcoming a new furry friend into their home must first come to terms with an unfortunate fact: animals are dirty, like us most of them have lots of hair and are messy. And for a place like the Berkeley Animal Shelter, which sees well over a thousand animals each year, “poop …
Do you think you can look at your microbiome or related data and detect patterns? Well, then this game may be for you: The 8-Bit Game That Makes Statistics Addictive Please make it stop. Nice article by Ed Yong in the Atlantic. But I warn you, don’t try it if you want to get …
Just a quick post here. I found this paper in JMBE when I was browsing in a special connection of ethics in biology. This was in the same volume of the journal and it struck me as something some people might find interesting. It is an article about undergraduate bioinformatics training: Undergraduate Bioinformatics Workshops Provide Perceived …
I got an email the other day about a new feature at Figshare. It was about a new feature they have called “Collections“. But before I describe that I should probably describe Figshare. Figshare is a repository for depositing and sharing various digital objects including not just Figures (which they name kind of implies … …