Quick post here — prepping for #MoBE17 meeting and found this new paper. It seems like it is worth a look: City-scale distribution and dispersal routes of mycobiome in residences: Microbiome. 2017 Oct 4;5(1):131. doi: 10.1186/s40168-017-0346-7. Abstract BACKGROUND: Pathogenic and allergenic bacteria and fungi within the indoors can bring detrimental health effects on the occupants. We …
Epidemiological and other studies have shown that, on average, having a dog is correlated to some possible health benefits (e.g., see this). And some studies have further suggested that this might be connected to “the microbiome” in that having a dog might change the microbiome of one’s surroundings and that this in turn might contribute …
Just got sent this and thought it might be of interest. Bates College: Call for Papers: Biology New Scholars Symposium on Fostering Diversity in Microbiology: Research, Pedagogy, and Climate in STEM Location: Lewiston, Maine Closes: Oct 20, 2017 Context: Founded in 1855, Bates is one of the nation’s leading liberal arts colleges, with a long …
Human exploration of planet Mars has a long history with number of robotic missions surveying the Martian surface and environment, including the Viking program (1975), the Mars Exploration Rover Mission (2003), the Phoenix lander (2008), and the Mars Science Laboratory (2012). For the future human space exploration, crewed Mars mission is considered as one of …
This could be interesting – a workshops this summer at the Aspen Center for Physics. June 3 – June 24 Physical Principles Governing the Organization of Microbial Communities. Organizers: Kerwyn Casey Huang, Stanford University Rachel Dutton, University of California San Diego Alvaro Sanchez, Yale University Jeff Gore*, MIT Nearly every environment on earth is populated …
We were super excited to see the recent paper “Recovery of nearly 8,000 metagenome-assembled genomes substantially expands the tree of life“. Really, the title says it all… the authors took hundreds of published metagenomic studies (focusing on non-human environments) and assembled thousands of genomes. Awesome. But we were curious how many of these genomes came …
So this sounds like there may be some interesting science going on here: Zero gravity had unexpected effects on E. coli samples, causing them to behave differently. That could present problems trying to treat them. Source: Space-Grown Bacteria Could Pose Major Problems for Astronauts But the article includes a bunch of needless fear mongering. What …
A new episode of “Food for Thought” from NPR on kitchen sponge microbes. By Michaeleen Doucleff:
So one of my projects for the last few months has been to try to create a collection of every peer-reviewed publication that resulted from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation program of the Microbiology of the Built Environment. The program has been running for over 10 years and has funded over 100 grants. To generate …
This seems worth looking over: The Looming Consequences of Mold in Houston by James Hamblin in The Atlantic. The article has a discussion of mold and moisture and the microbiology of the built environment. It includes a discussion of some of the experiences and work of Joan Bennett who is a well known expert in …