There has been a nasty min epidemic at a hospital in Belfast: Bacteria in baby unit traced to sink taps – The Irish Times – Wed, Jan 25, 2012. It appears to have been traced to a water tap. Just a mini reminder that we need to learn more about the biogeography of microbes in …
Well, Legionnaires disease is not pleasant by any stretch of the imagination. And this latest report is certainly a bit disturbing: Hospitals water wall source of Legionnaires Disease – Health – CBC News. But to me, the reaction to this is a bit much. According to the news story there are now two – count ’em …
A gross and lovely story all rolled into one – post Christmas dinner in the UK the pipes tend to clog up around towns from the grease and fat. What to do about this? Well, if you can’t get people to dumpy less fat and grease down the drain, how about adding some grease eating …
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 …
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 …
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 …
After reading this story today about Serratia marcescens I thought it would be interesting to have the occasional post highlighting a particular organism found in the built environment. Sort of like a baseball card collection of microbes. Name: Serratia marcescens Location: commonly found in showers, toilets, tiles etc. Fairly ubiquitous in damp environments. Description: rod-shaped, …
When I first heard about the 5-story biowall at Drexel University I was impressed. I’d often heard that plants help clean indoor air and it seemed that having a large experimental setup like this would be great. Just to briefly summarize, this wall features 12 kinds of plants, all growing hydroponically on a giant mesh. …
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 …
What is microBEnet? The microbiology of the Built Environment network, or microBEnet, is a project funded by a grant from Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Program on the Indoor Environment. The main goals of the microBEnet project are to: Catalyze communication and collaboration among researchers funded in the Sloan Program on the Indoor Environment. Reach out …