So I just saw this Tweet @BioMickWatson can’t find paper I’m thinking of, but OTU calling software/algorithm matters a lot – David Baltrus (@surt_lab) August 6, 2016 So I went to Mick Watson’s site and saw this: This is my attempt to collate the literature on how easy it is to introduce bias into microbiome …
There is an interesting new open access paper on urban ecosystems out in Biology Letters: Exoskeletons and economics: indoor arthropod diversity increases in affluent neighbourhoods | Biology Letters No it is not directly about microbes but nobody’s perfect and many of the arthropods they look at are small and the story about biodiversity is (I …
So there is this new paper out in the New England Journal of Medicine: Innate Immunity and Asthma Risk in Amish and Hutterite Farm Children – NEJM It is quite interesting and is getting a bunch of press including Barnyard Dust Offers a Clue to Stopping Asthma in Children Amish kids help scientists understand why …
There is a recent review paper that may be of interest: Pediatric Asthma and the Indoor Microbial Environment | SpringerLink Abstract The global increase in the prevalence of asthma has been related to several risk factors; many of them linked to the “westernization” process and the characteristics of the indoor microbial environment during early life …
Quick post – paper of interest: Urban greenness influences airborne bacterial community composition Abstract Urban green space provides health benefits for city dwellers, and new evidence suggests that microorganisms associated with soil and vegetation could play a role. While airborne microorganisms are ubiquitous in urban areas, the influence of nearby vegetation on airborne microbial communities …
There is a really nice new paper out in mSystems (full disclosure – I am on the Board of Editors of the journal). The paper is from Brent Stephens and sums up a recent presentation of his. See What Have We Learned about the Microbiomes of Indoor Environments? Abstract: The advent and application of high-throughput …
Worth a look – everyone should get their Art and Microbes fix on: 10 Ways To Boost Your Microbiota On Etsy | the vexed muddler
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 …