Seems like every day there is a new report of “bacteria and germs found” somewhere in the household. Todays report tells us that: Bacteria can thrive on paper towels, says study – HealthPop – CBS News. Yes, that is right – microbes – which are tiny and live EVERYWHERE – can in fact be found on …
A gross and lovely story all rolled into one – post Christmas dinner in the UK the pipes tend to clog up around towns from the grease and fat. What to do about this? Well, if you can’t get people to dumpy less fat and grease down the drain, how about adding some grease eating …
Another “scary microbe that lives in your house/office/car” story. In this case, the fungi Fusarium which can be pathogenic, particularly for people with immune deficiencies. To be fair, the authors of the scientific study take pains to point out that “the serious infections caused by fusaria are relatively uncommon and that these fungi may even …
Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) as a group are of major concern to those who study indoor air quality. A few of these are produced by microbes (mVOCs) but most are from our use of chemicals in building materials and disinfection. The potential role of microbes in the mediation of VOCs is not particularly well understood …
When we talk about “community structure” in microbial ecology we are usually referring to the composition and frequency of various species in that community, information often arrived at through rRNA sequencing and/or metagenomics. But there is of course also a “real” structure of communities, particularly in biofilms. Some species tend to be physically associated with …
As with our recent musings on probiotics for buildings, sometimes it’s fun and productive to think about the distant future in the microbiology of the built environment. And Royal Philips Electronics (Netherlands) has done just that with their futuristic “Microbial Home” project. I’m not saying every one of their ideas will work, or that I’m …
Wastewater treatment systems are one of the few built environments where microbes get the attention we believe they deserve. Bacteria in particular are a critical component of treating the massive waste stream generated by humanity on a daily basis. And those bacteria are basically harmless out in the wild… unless they harbor and transfer antibiotic …
As soon as I heard about this story I figured there was going to be a lot of scare-mongering news coverage about all the scary things waiting to ambush you in public restrooms. But in fact, most of what I read was quite reasonable and gave this well-done study a fair shake. This study, from …
Quick post here. Check out the story from ABC news (Australia, that is): Indoor ecology – RN Future Tense – 24 November 2011. Their summary: We’re used to hearing about threats to our outdoor environment. But we rarely think about some of the challenges that we face in our indoor environment. A growing number of …
After reading this story today about Serratia marcescens I thought it would be interesting to have the occasional post highlighting a particular organism found in the built environment. Sort of like a baseball card collection of microbes. Name: Serratia marcescens Location: commonly found in showers, toilets, tiles etc. Fairly ubiquitous in damp environments. Description: rod-shaped, …