Aug
Artist’s interpretation of the human microbiome
Artist and illustrator Russell Cobb is responsible for these wonderfully artistic depictions of the human microbiome, beautifully detailing the emerging view of the human body as an ecosystem containing many collaborating and competing species.
Aug
The Shining: Antarctica style
Located in Antarctica’s McMurdo Dry Valley, this is the Taylor Glacier known for its blood-red waterfall. Unlike The Shining however, it isn’t blood that produces this natural wonder but the work of extremophilic microorganisms. As explained by Atlas Obscura,
Roughly two million years ago, the Taylor Glacier sealed beneath it a small body of water which contained an ancient community of microbes. Trapped below a thick layer of ice, they have remained there ever since, isolated inside a natural time capsule. Evolving independently of the rest of the living world, these microbes exist in a place with no light or free oxygen and little heat, and are essentially the definition of “primordial ooze.” The trapped lake has very high salinity and is rich in iron, which gives the waterfall its red color. A fissure in the glacier allows the subglacial lake to flow out, forming the falls without contaminating the ecosystem within.
(via Cool Like Pie)
Jul
Bone devouring worms
Osedax (Latin for “bone devourer”), otherwise known as “zombie worms”, are a group of worms that, with no mouth, gut, or anus, are able to dig into whale bones to retrieve nutrients.
Recent studies have shown that the worm metabolism is assisted by symbiotic bacteria that break down ingested fats and oils, while acid-secreting enzymes in the root-like regions of the worms are released to begin the breakdown of bone material.
Jun
The Microbiome: The presence and abundance of our invisible residents
It’s been a big week for our microbiomes.
The first phase of an ambitious study to characterise all the bacteria, fungi, and other microbes that reside in our bodies has been completed, with the results published this week in a series of articles in Nature, PLoS One and Genome Biology.
It’s a significant undertaking as the majority of previous research has focused on only those bugs that can potentially cause disease. The current study hints at the enormous scope of a person’s microbial rainforest, while highlighting the emerging view that these bugs, both pathogenic and non-pathogenic, actively participate and contribute to our metabolism and are critical for our ongoing health and survival.
To give you a taste of the “complex combinations” of these microbial partners of ours, The New York Times has published this impressive ‘family tree’ illustrating their prevalence and abundance.
Jun
E. chromi: Self-diagnosis based on the colour of your poop
Have you got some pesky bacteria that are giving you grief? Well Cambridge researchers have developed a system to colour-code them for you so you can see exactly what you’ve got. You just have to do a little poop investigating first..
I’ll let the inventors explain how this exactly works:
The patient ingests a drink, much like a probiotic shake, laced with the engineered E. coli; the bacteria react with the enzymes, proteins, and other chemicals that are present in the gastrointestinal tract and turn different colors for different diseases, thus changing the color of the patient’s faeces.
Also: somewhere, someone is walking around with that briefcase of coloured poop. Hopefully they are not going door-to-door with it.
(via Inhabitat and Laughing Squid)
Jun
Wash your hands: Fatality rate vs survival time of infectious disease agents
Washing your hands is one of the best ways to prevent the spread of infectious disease and illness. As you can see above, several organisms like Mycobacterium tuberculosis and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) are able to survive 100-200 days outside the body, just waiting for someone to pass them along to a new, unsuspecting host.
Jun
Deadly genomes: Mapping the size, content, and impact of some of the world’s deadliest infectious agents
See high resolution image here.
Jun
![How clean is your desk: Bacterial abundance in the office
A recent study compared the microbial diversity of three US office buildings.
Using cell counting and ribosomal RNA sequencing, the authors composed the above image to represent the number and diversity of the most commonly identified microbes.
As quoted in the study:
[H]umans move through a sea of microbial life that is seldom perceived except in the context of potential disease and decay.” (Feazel et al.)
I’m off to clean my desk (again).](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m54fn6nM2C1r53gljo1_1280.jpg)
How clean is your desk: Bacterial abundance in the office
A recent study compared the microbial diversity of three US office buildings.
Using cell counting and ribosomal RNA sequencing, the authors composed the above image to represent the number and diversity of the most commonly identified microbes.
As quoted in the study:
[H]umans move through a sea of microbial life that is seldom perceived except in the context of potential disease and decay.” (Feazel et al.)
I’m off to clean my desk (again).
May
Explore The Human Microbiome
The human microbiome refers to all of the microbial organisms that reside in the body including bacteria, fungi, and archaea. Notably, the human body contains over 10 times more microbial cells than human cells.
To illustrate the diversity of these ‘body bugs’, Scientific American have profiled this impressive, interactive map of the key microorganisms commonly identified in the human body and their predominant location.
Interest in the human microbiome has increased in recent years, following reports that the type and number of microorganisms seem to play a role in the onset of several medical conditions including obesity, cancer, and diabetes.
(via freshphotons)
May
Painting with bacteria
Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin and gave the world its most historically significant antibiotic. It is lesser-known however, that we was also quite an artist that used an usual medium: biological organisms.
To do this, he would use a wire loop to inoculate sections of a typical microbiological agar plate, or growth medium. Naturally, the paintings were technically difficult to make as he needed microbes with different pigments and would need to time his inoculations so that each species matured at the same time. These works of microbial art only existed as long as it took one species to grow into the others.
Then what happened, the lines between, say, a hat and a face were blurred; so too were the lines between art and science.
May
what is morning breath?
Did you know?
“Morning breath” is due to the reduced oxygen availability and saliva production in the mouth, allowing bacteria to propagate and breakdown proteins to amino acids resulting in the release of foul gasses.
May
Since I was talking about magnetic bacteria yesterday, here’s a beautifully elegant depiction of a magnetic field.
A magnetic field visualized
(via jtotheizzoe)
About Me
Hi there, I'm Jim: PhD student in the biological sciences, enthusiast, friendly neighbour, Australian.
