Just finished reading this review article preprint on PeerJ by Major Ben Kirkup from the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. Called “Counterinsurgency Doctrine Applied to Infectious Disease” this article reviews the existing literature on the human microbiome, gives some background on military counterinsurgency doctrine, and then applies insights from the latter to the former. …
While searching for news about microbes in the built environment I stumbled across these fascinating photographs (electron micrographs) of symbiotic termite gut microbes. Taken with a scanning electron microscope by Kevin J. Carpenter a biologist/microscopist/photographer (and fellow Davis alum!), they just finished an exhibit at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum in January, after being displayed in …
The 2012, Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion more commonly known as the BP oil spill produced drastic changes in microbial communities, some of which contributed to bioremediation of the areas affected by the spill. According to a recent article (2013) in Environmental Science and Technology, succession of several microbial communities, particularly hydrocarbon-metabolizing bacteria of the …
You can download the database of over 360 publications that report characteristics of the indoor environment along with the microbes found in the studies. Each publication is entered as a record and includes citation, abstract, keywords, organisms, substrates, and environmental conditions as reported by the authors. The database in MS Access format is searchable for …
This weekend while cleaning my dishes I noticed a troubling rotten-egg odor emanating from the drain, helpfully reminding me that it was not only time to run the garbage disposal but also to clean out the sink. “I think our colonies of sulfate reducers are coming along well,” I quipped to my roommate. But being …
In researching previous studies conducted on microbes in space for Project MERCURRI, I ran across an interesting microbiology diversity study done on European Spacecraft-Associated (ESA) clean rooms in the Herschel Space Observatory. Historically, clean rooms are supposedly “sterile” environments that are used for the building and maintenance of spacecrafts, as directed by the UN’s Outer Space planetary …
One of our goals this year for microBEnet is to start to build a protocol library for members of the community. This library would hopefully include methods for carrying out all sorts of different kinds of work – from how to sample dust in a building (e.g., do you use a shop vac or a …
We have recently just finished updating and revising our (surprisingly popular) list of all the Sloan grants under the Microbiology of the Built Environment Program. Reading through the list of projects gives a good sense of the disparate kinds of research taking place in the field.
Scared of flying? Here’s one more reason you can add to your list. There is concern about the microbiology is airplane cabins, as it is a closed environment utilizing recycled air. The occupant density is much greater than normal “built” environments, and passengers cannot leave when they want to. But not much is known about …
Just a quick note that the conference website is now live for the 3rd annual Microbiology of the Built Environment Conference in Boulder, CO on June 4-6 2014. Check it out, and if you’re a Sloan-funded participant in the program you should be able to register.