Heard about an interesting paper today (sadly not open access) describing airflow simulations in an aerosol chamber. Basically they showed that if you release bugs from a mannequin, they spread all over the room… up to 3.5 meters away. A worthwhile study, but not something that wasn’t known already. What made this get so much …
We’ve talked here in the past about the idea of probiotics for buildings (which is many years in the future, if ever) and pretty much everyone has heard about probiotics for human health (currently an issue of much debate). One of the problems with both buildings and people is the difficulty of testing a hypothesis …
Just a quick one here — been pointed to the existence of a “self-sterilizing” keyboard (e.g., Brier Dudleys Blog | FDA OKs Vioguards germ-killing keyboard | Seattle Times Newspaper.) from a company called Vioguard. Clearly keyboards could be a “breeding” ground for nasty microbes so cleaning keyboards, especially those used in hospitals, seems like a good …
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 …
Myth 1. Microbes are ALL bad (including “Bacteria are bad”, “Viruses are bad”, “Fungi are bad”, and so on). Probably the most common myth about microbes in general, the “microbes are bad” myth, inspires irrational fears and excessive, cleaning, sterilization and use of biocides. There are certainly dangerous microbes that can be found in the …
I’ve posted several times in the past about various beneficial uses of bacteria in the built environment, including remediation of art and the idea of probiotics for buildings. Today I saw a story about using beneficial bacteria in cleaning liquid, which supposedly “reduced bad bacteria by 1,000-fold compared with standard cleaning techniques”. Sounds interesting. Where …
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. …