home .Featured, Animals and the Built Environment, Infectious Diseases Who are the microbes in your neighborhood? In your neighborhood? In your neighborhood?

Who are the microbes in your neighborhood? In your neighborhood? In your neighborhood?

Sorry for the headline here but when I saw this news story (British scientists survey infectious bacteria by having people walk outside in socks – The Washington Post). I just could not get Mr. Rogers’ “Who are the people in your neighborhood” out of my head.

But with the “people” replaced by “microbes”.

Why did this come to me? Well, the story discusses how a group of scientists surveyed the microbes (well, at least one microbe – Campylobacter) in their neighborhood using a relatively goofy method – walking around the neighborhood wearing “boot socks”.  This may seem a bit goofy but it is actually a useful method for sampling the microbes on the ground in a particular area.

 

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