Just got done reading this article from the Guardian and it is distressing Guardian analysis reveals millions of customers were asked to used testing method condemned by the EPA which may flush out detectable lead content Source: Water utilities serving American cities use tests that downplay contamination | Environment | The Guardian by Jessica Glenza and Oliver Milman. The …
Here are some recent news and science articles on antibiotic resistance that I found this afternoon: Some not so happy stories – Intestinal microbiome is related to lifetime antibiotic use in Finnish pre-school children Antimicrobial resistance a challenge to public health: Nadda Some happy/cool stories – Audiocast: Developing new antimicrobial drugs and alternatives Bills would prohibit livestock …
Over the past few months, the Flint water crisis has been covered at length by various media outlets, including here on microBEnet. Here is an update on the situation from NY Times. The Legionnaire’s cases started popping up around June 2014. This article discusses the poor water management in Flint, as well as the inadequate response …
*This blog post highlights the backstory to my student’s project, which you can find here, on experiment.com. Discoveries in science can come from unexpected sources I became a scientist because my undergraduate mentor allowed me the opportunity to make my own discoveries. While a young student at Swarthmore College, my then mentor Rachel Merz gave …
Great opportunity If you are a student in the Master’s program, PhD student or post-doctoral fellow, if you believe that efficient, comfortable and healthy buildings are not only possible but necessary, if you are interested in building lasting collaborations and have fun doing it all, the summer school is for you. Event Description: ISIAQ summer …
Last week, a bunch of news articles came out (like this one) that talk about how we are on track to figuring out new ways to tackle antibiotic resistant superbugs. The research they are referring to highlights a paper recently published in Nature (a closed access journal) by Changjiang Dong’s group at the University of East …
The CDC recently had to correct an error in a flooring report – it was a silly calculation error that we have all made before, but that had a huge outcome. They forgot to convert feet to meters in their report, meaning they severely underestimated health risks related to formaldehyde in laminate flooring. The risks are …
This recent news article discusses a new candidate antimicrobial called Globomycin and the work that researchers at Trinity College Dublin have put in to map out its spatial organization. A particularly interesting point that is discussed is the idea of narrow-spectrum antibiotics. Antibiotic/antimicrobial resistance is driven in part by the fact that these drugs target a …
I’ve been seeing a lot of media articles recently on applications of gut microbiome research in health in terms of pills and probiotics. One article talks about a start-up that is trying to create various pills filled with bacteria associated with different positive health effects. Of course, there is the question if such probiotics will thrive in …
The Guardian is reporting that lead contamination may be a problem “in every major city east of the Mississippi,” and that, as in Flint, contamination may be deliberately covered up by local water utilities through a loosely organized program of test gaming. Lead isn’t very soluble in water. If you want your tests to come …