Desperate to know what microbes are on your money? This project is for you (with some cool side science benefits)

I am fascinated by citizen science projects like this: The Bioweathermap Sees The Germs Around Us – Bruce Upbin – Tradigital – Forbes.  Years ago it was all the rage to track where your money had been using systems like “Where’s George“.  Well, movement is not all that happens to money.  Money picks up all sorts …

Biofilm-forming bacteria get ride on final space shuttle trip (on purpose)

The last flight of the Shuttle Atlantis is scheduled for early July and there’ll be some cool microbes aboard.  Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus are both biofilm-forming bacteria with serious health consequences, particularly in hospitals.  The researchers involved in this project are interested in the effects of microgravity on biofilm formation, and have some preliminary …

Is your pillow trying to kill you as well? More excessive media hype about indoor microbes.

“How your pillow is the perfect breeding ground for gruesome array of pests and diseases”. This headline from the Daily Mail in the UK was one of many yesterday relating to a study presented at the Healthcare Associated Infections 2011 conference in London on Tuesday.  As usual, the study didn’t make any actual associations between …

Is your dishwasher trying to kill you? Maybe, but no evidence of that from this work

A new paper coming out in the journal Fungal Biology is getting a lot of press.  The paper is: Dishwashers — A man-made ecological niche accommodating human opportunistic fungal pathogens Normally, I try to avoid writing up blog posts relating to papers that are not at least freely available online so that anyone out there can …