Recently I wrote here about a new report on a citizen microbiology effort focusing on microbes in water heaters: More on citizen microbiology project from @Penn_State & @NASA on thermophiles in water heaters via @scicheer @Sci4Cits Well, a new paper in PLoS One (PLoS ONE: Aquarium Nitrification Revisited: Thaumarchaeota Are the Dominant Ammonia Oxidizers in Freshwater …
I love citizen science. And I dream of doing citizen microbiology. Thus I love the project going on at Penn. St. on getting people to sample microbes in hot water heaters (posted a mini note about it a while ago). There is a good article about this project on the Science For Citizens blog here: …
Well, kudos I suppose to the headline writer for this one: Your faeces, my furry friend, are blowin’ in the wind – health – 12 August 2011 – New Scientist. The article is about recent work by Noah Fierer and colleagues on bacteria in outdoor air in cities. Not exactly microbiology of the built environment …
Wow. Jessica Green is certainly helping spread the word about microbes in buildings. There is an article in smartplanet from Aug 6 about her work: Ecologists, designers explore new ‘architecture-biology interface’ | SmartPlanet. The article discusses her recent Ted talk and some of her work at the BioBE Center.
Interesting blog post from the BioBE Center worth checking out regarding Unsavory sources of bacteria in urban air referencing a new paper from Noah Fierer and others. Alas the paper is not OpenAccess and even I can’t get a copy of it right now. But it seems interesting …
OK my headline is a bit over the top. But it is reactionary to some over the top claims by a doctor from Arizona worried about germs in play areas. The Sacramento Bee has an article about a crusade by a woman named Erin Carr-Jordan who is apparently trying to rally the troops around the …
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 …
The American Society for Microbiology (ASM) is really doing a great job of moving into new forms of science communication. For example, ASM has a relatively new journal mBIO that is sort of akin to PLoS One – it is an open access and relatively rapid publication journal. And mBIO is starting to take off. …
There is a fascinating article by Richard Grant at F1000: Lobster-Pot Science – The Scientist – Magazine of the Life Sciences. It is about how two researchers at U. T Austin came together to study bacterial communication in miniature built structures. I am a bit overwhelmed with prepping for a meeting I have tomorrow so …
Ed Yong in his blog discusses a recent article he wrote for Wired UK: The real story about space bacteria | Not Exactly Rocket Science | Discover Magazine. Some aspects of the story are very interesting. What I want to call attention to here is that NASA (and other space agencies) should be VERY interested in …