I am enjoying the posts to the Scientific American Blogs by Rob Dunn on his and other Citizen Science project(s) and I thought I would share here. Scientist Spots Missing Link in his Basement, but is too Sleepy to Catch it | Compound Eye, Scientific American Blog Network. The top 10 life-forms living on Lady …
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 …
In preparation for the New Year, we’ve updated our “Upcoming Events” page and calendar to include conferences/workshops etc. that we hope will be of interest. We’ve tried to include both microbiology and building sciences, but mainly places where they overlap. https://www.microbe.net/upcoming-events/ Please feel free to send us any additional suggestions!
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 …
Just became aware of a conference that may be of interest to those who care about microbiology of the built environment: The Second International Conference on Building Energy and Environment (COBEE). From their website: Energy and environment concerns have been ranked among the top problems facing society for the next 50 years, of which buildings …
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 …
Introduction to Food- and Air-Borne Fungi. 18-22 June 2012, Ottawa, Canada. We are pleased to offer our five day course for mycologists interested in food spoilage, indoor air quality, industrial hygiene, mycotoxins, pharmaceuticals, biodeterioration, etc.. More than 100 mould and yeast species common in indoor air and on food will be examined, including important species of Penicillium, Aspergillus, Fusarium …
Listening to this podcast this morning reminded me that we hadn’t yet made a plug for Rob Dunn’s awesome citizen science project “Domestic Biomes: The Wild Life of Your Home”. This project is collecting samples of people’s homes (and the people themselves) from all across the country, in both urban and rural environments. The samples …