This story about naked surgery has no clothes …

A University of Washington study found surgeons in the nude shed ‘significantly less bacteria than those wearing scrubs’, but admitted it was not likely to ever happen. So – this DailyMail story certainly has a catchy headline: Surgeons can stop spread of germs by operating NAKED | Daily Mail Online. Alas, the story is seriously …

Training course in “Preserving, storing and maintaining microorganisms”

Of potential interest: Sept. 12-14 2017. Training course in Preserving, storing and maintaining microorganisms. From the site: Presented by staff from CABI, this course will be of interest to everyone involved in the handling, distributing and storing microorganisms. The course covers all aspects of culture preservation, maintenance and culture collection management and complies with the …

The Wild West of Self-Regulated Cosmetics

So as more and more companies start marketing cosmetic products with supposedly probiotic microbes in them (see eg., Farris Jabr’s excellent article in the NY Times from two days ago), it is important to recognize that, as the article linked below says “the cosmetic industry is largely self regulated.” Definitely worth a read. Manufacturers are not …

Great article by Maryn McKenna on the hunt for new antibiotics w/ crowdsourcing help

This is definitely worth a read: Source: Could the Answer to the Antibiotic-Resistance Crisis Be Found on a Toilet Seat? – The Atlantic Or a listen to since there is an audio version of the story (see below).\ The article basically discusses work by Adam Roberts to survey the world for new antibiotics.  The best …

Alleged mishandling of Flint Legionnaire’s outbreak leads to manslaughter charges for MI health chief

This is a pretty big deal. Nick Lyon is the highest-ranking state official to be charged in the crisis. Source: Flint Water Crisis: Michigan Health Chief Charged With Involuntary Manslaughter : NPR The director of the Department of HHS in Michigan, Nick Lyon, has been charged with involuntary manslaughter in relation to the Flint, MI …

A hairy pacman approach to “microbial dark matter” in drinking water

Got pointed to this paper by Sofia Ahsanuddin of the MetaSub project and thought it might be of interest. Source: Exploring the under-investigated “microbial dark matter” of drinking water treatment plants : Scientific Reports Abstract: Scientists recently reported the unexpected detection of unknown or poorly studied bacterial diversity in groundwater. The ability to uncover this neglected biodiversity …