Microbial Ecosystem Ecologist at Colorado State University

Position Announcement Colorado State University Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability POSITION: Assistant Professor, Microbial Ecosystem Ecology DESCRIPTION: Tenure track, 9-month academic faculty position The Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability at Colorado State University (CSU) invites applications for a tenure track faculty position in Microbial Ecosystem Ecology at the rank of assistant professor. We …

Post doc opportunity: urban methane dynamics

Of possible interest: Dear Colleagues- Please forward this to lists within your institution and to individuals who may be interested: We seek an outstanding individual to contribute to a collaboration between Google, the Environmental Defense Fund and Colorado State University that is having direct impact on the amount of methane being emitted from cities. In …

Near perfect balance in a microbiome paper – hopeful yet no hype: The microbiome of the built environment and mental health

Source: The microbiome of the built environment and mental health | Microbiome | Full Text Andrew J. Hoisington, Lisa A. Brenner, Kerry A. Kinney, Teodor T. Postolache and Christopher A. Lowry When I saw the title of this I cringed a bit, worried that this paper would be overselling what we know about the microbiome and …

Success in the Form of Failure

In this recent segment on Science Friday, Ira Glass interviews Stuart Firestein about how failure in science is not just inevitable, but is just as important to the advancement of knowledge as the success is. I know that every single person can relate to this idea, which actually applies to far beyond the sciences. I …

Fascinating look at the design of a science infographic (on life in dust)

Designers Martin Krzywinski and Barbara Jeannie Hunnicutt provide a peek behind the scenes, and explain how they developed a data visualization based on bacterial genome information derived from dust. Source: The Evolution of a Scientific American Infographic: Secret Life in Household Dust – Scientific American Blog Network This is an absolutely fascinating look behind the …

Artist creates solid block of Beijing smog

As Beijing experiences its first “Red Alert” smog emergency, an aptly-timed bit of quirky performance art is making the round on Chinese social media and the English-language press today. A artist from Shenzhen who calls himself “Brother Nut” spent 100 days walking around Beijing with an industrial vacuum cleaner. He then collected dust into a …

Changing How We Talk About Antibiotic Resistance

I was catching up on my NPR shows this evening and this one is definitely worth a listen. Here are the slides that they talk about in the podcast that summarize conversations with a focus group in England about antimicrobial resistance. Science Friday interviews Ed Young (who I highly recommend you follow on Twitter if you don’t already) …

MoBE Postdoctoral Fellowship: Characterization of Microbial Contributions to Volatile Organic Compounds in the Residential Environment

Microbes are ubiquitous in the built environment and present as a unique ecological component of importance for indoor air quality. One major influence of microbial activities on indoor air quality is through the emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Although a variety of microbial VOCs (mVOCs) have been identified in laboratory studies, compounds exclusively of …