Of possible interest to readers here. On my Tree of Life blog I have been compiling a list of microbiology focused blogs: The Tree of Life: Collecting links to blogs that focus entirely or partly on microbiology topics #ASM2012. We will be adding these to the microbiology blogroll here soon.
Quick post. We are starting to build a glossary on terms and their definitions to help people read/understand papers and stories about microbiology of the built environment. If you have any ideas for terms to include, let us know. Among those on our list PCR rRNA diversity phylogenetics metagenomics transcriptomics annotation culturing UNIFRAC Illumina DNA …
Looking for input on a couple of new pages on the microBEnet site. The first is a revised, updated list of all the grantees in the Sloan Foundation’s microbiology of the built environment program. This might be useful for anyone considering the recent call for proposals. If you’re a Sloan Grantee, we’d really appreciate it …
An excellent workshop summary came out today entitled “Challenges in Microbial Sampling in Indoor Environments”. Download the PDF here This workshop was held Feb 14-15 2011 and was a collaboration between the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST), and Yale University. The purpose of the Challenges in Microbial Sampling …
The driving force behind much of the new research in the microbiology of built environment is the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation which is funding a large variety of research projects, as well as microBEnet. For more information on their program, accomplishments to date, and goals for the future check out this written interview with Paula …
New video from Institute of Medicine on “What you need to know about infectious disease” which is useful and fortunately includes some information about things other than infectious diseases. It is based on this booklet. I note – it is heavy on those with apparent XY chromosome status, but maybe next time they will include …
We’ve posted a couple of times in the past about the large collection of papers we’ve assembled on Mendeley relating to the microbiology of the built environment. See here and here. Because the utility of a large collection is in part dependent on the organization and tagging, we’ve created a couple of short tutorial videos …
Ever heard any of these “microbial myths”? “Microbes are all bad” “The only good microbe is a dead microbe” “E. coli bacteria (or any other microbe) are all the same” “The biggest health concern in buildings is mold” “Microbes in the built environment affect everyone the same way” Then check out our new microbial myth …
Year 2030 1: Construct a building 2: Spray bacteria and fungi all around the building 3: Wait a few weeks and then open for business Sound crazy? Not necessarily. This scenario, or something like it, is the kind of application that could theoretically come out of current studies on the microbiology of the built environment. …
Are you a building scientist curious to learn more about molecular techniques for studying microbes? Are you a microbial ecologist hoping to get a bit of background on ribosomal RNA surveys? Then check our our new and improved “Simple Guides”. These are the start of what we hope will be a larger collection of documents …