Great TED talk yesterday by Jessica Green who is one of the folks in charge of the BioBE Center, another project funded by the Sloan Foundation Indoor Air Program. Here she talks about the relationship between outdoor air and mechanically vented air in hospitals.
When people hear “microbiology of the built environment” they tend to think first of buildings. But the built environment includes so much more, ranging from transportation (cars/planes/space shuttles) to swimming pools to highway bridges. The National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) has a test facility where they study biofuels. They recently presented some results …
Have this on my book shelf and was showing it to people today. And low and behold, there it is on Google Books: Bacteria in relation to country life – Google Books. Download the PDF. Learn about microbes in milk products, manure, wells, air, sewage, food, and more. Gotta love Google Books. And microbes.
The last flight of the Shuttle Atlantis is scheduled for early July and there’ll be some cool microbes aboard. Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus are both biofilm-forming bacteria with serious health consequences, particularly in hospitals. The researchers involved in this project are interested in the effects of microgravity on biofilm formation, and have some preliminary …
Next in my ongoing series of posts related to beneficial microbes in the built environment… using Pseudomonas to restore 17th century Italian frescoes. Apparently these particular frescoes were improperly restored in the 1960’s using some kind of gelatin glue that now causes salt crystals to grow on the art. Both chemical and mechanical removal methods …
Good Morning America is taking on bacteria. Bacteria that are found indoors. The report: GMA Germ Test Shows Public Seats Full of Bacteria – ABC News has some interesting bits and the video is nice in many ways. The bottom line – they found bacteria (by culturing) in all sorts of indoor locations. And they did …
There is a fascinating article by Richard Grant at F1000: Lobster-Pot Science – The Scientist – Magazine of the Life Sciences. It is about how two researchers at U. T Austin came together to study bacterial communication in miniature built structures. I am a bit overwhelmed with prepping for a meeting I have tomorrow so …
Some new publications were just released by the CDC’s Journal Emerging Infectious Diseases relating to the cholera epidemic in Haiti. Understanding the Cholera Epidemic, Haiti Implications of the Introduction of Cholera to Haiti Vibrio cholerae in Traveler from Haiti to Canada I note I wrote about this recently in regard to the UN report discussing …
An automated search I have of Google News for “emerging infectious diseases” pulled up this: Orkin Issues Statement on Recent Bedbugs Study. In the press release Orkin discusses how they will help people deal with this new issue of bedbugs possibly carrying MRSA. The press release is actually not so awfully worded (compared to many). And …
Found a meeting abstract that intrigued me:Distribution of Airborne Bacteria and Fungi in the Korean High Speed Train Indoor. The abstract is below: Background/Aims: It is known that the airborne bacteria and fungi can be the cause of a variety of infectious diseases as well as allergic and toxic effects. The purpose of this study …