Part of our ongoing mission is to get people to look beyond pathogens, to consider the microbiome as a whole (indoors or human), and to not assume all microbes are evil. I was particularly struck yesterday by an article on a “water-less shower” product being hyped on SmartPlanet. Especially this quote: “Though some of you …
Another just-approved project in the built environment. This project led by Noah Fierer (CU Boulder), Shelly Miller (CU Boulder) and Rob Dunn (North Carolina State) will look at the factors structuring bacterial and fungal diversity in 1,000 homes across the United States. We propose the first continental-scale study testing how and why house-associated microbial communities …
Glad to see this paper on emission of bacteria by people is now available under Wiley’s “Open Access” option: Size-resolved emission rates of airborne bacteria and fungi in an occupied classroom – Qian – 2012 I am particularly glad since this one got a lot of media coverage and I think it is VERY important for …
Well, normally I find popular press stories about getting rid of dust and bacteria to be mostly fear mongering. But this article from WebMD (which much of the time I have complaints about) actually seems worth a look: Are Vacuum Cleaners Bad for Your Health?. The article discusses in part new work from Australian researchers on …
When I think of things that problematically attach themselves the bottom of boats, I usually think of barnacles. But bacterial biofilms can also be a problem, and can make the substrate more attractive to larger organisms. I saw an interesting story today on work focused on developing anti-fouling systems that aren’t toxic to the environment. …
Wow this “story” (which is really an ad) is just so incredibly bad I do not know what to say: Dangerous Bacteria Isolated in Healthcare HVAC Evaporator Coils. I do not even know where to begin with criticism so I will just go step by step through some of the advertisement. 1. Title: Dangerous Bacteria Isolated …
When I walk around UC Davis campus or visit areas near hospitals I am always dismayed by the number of people wearing their scrubs when they go out to lunch, seminars, or just walk around. I have always wondered whether those scrubs harbor anything nasty. Well, a new study in the American Journal of Infection Control …
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 …
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 …
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 …