A picture is worth a thousand bugs

Old photographs often are unique artifacts that provide a realistic look into the recent human history. However, many of these older printed photos are deteriorating, due to humidity, temperature, extended light exposure, and biodeterioration. Scientific Reports published a nice paper this week about the microbes found on and in old photographs, called Microbial communities affecting albumen photography heritage: …

New papers on microbiology of the built environment, August 24, 2015

This week’s papers are about microbes found on hospital doorknobs, spacecraft assembly cleanrooms, a painting by Leonardo da Vinci, in waste water, and in creosote-treated wood composting. I could not find a song about the specific painting featured here, but Panic at the Disco had a song about another famous painting by LdV: The Ballad of Mona …