Using bacteria to do in situ construction of sorts on Earth and Mars

And it will change how we think about construction here on Earth. Source: Genetically Engineered Bacteria Will Get Construction Jobs on Mars | Inverse Not 100% sure what to think of this story but it certainly is interesting.  The basic summary: Jacqueline Ronson has written an article for Inverse about work by a group from Newcastle …

NASA postdoctoral fellowship solicitation to study the microbiology of the #ISS

In parallel to the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation offer of two postdoctoral fellowships to study the microbiology of the ISS, NASA is also issuing a pair of postdoc fellowships on their end.  The collaboration between Sloan and NASA is great to see, since there is significant overlap between their interests in this field.  I’m really …

Dual postdoctoral fellowship opportunity to study the microbiology of the #ISS

This is so awesome. The Sloan Program in Microbiology of the Built Environment is offering a pair of postdoc fellowships to work on the microbiology of the International Space Station. Summary of the call is below, the compete information packet can be downloaded here.  And if that’s not cool enough, the next blog post is …

Chernobyl Fungi in Space

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 …

A Portrait of a Building and its External Inhabitants

Imagine a city skyline — what do you see?  Skyscraper peaks, metallic sheens, sand-colored stones, rusty brickreds, dirty white plaster, glinting windows?  That is a lot of surface area!  I am curious about what can be eking out a living on all of these different surfaces, and how it might be contributing to urban ecosystems. In …

Videos of talks from “Microbiomes of the Built Environment: From Research to Application”

On April 11 there was a meeting in Washington DC that was part of an effort from a new study being conducted by the National Academies of Science, Medicine, and Engineering on “Microbiomes of the Built Environment”.  Videos and slides from the meeting have now been posted.  I have compiled them below. In addition, I …