A new PBS Frontline documentary looks at the morass of accusations — about anthrax terrorism — aimed at two US government scientists, Bruce Ivins and Steven Hatfill, who worked at Fort Dietrick, Maryland. The case against either man has turned out to be less than clear. In all the media discussion of this case, almost […]
Tag: microbes
Bacteria and you (a healthy rant)
Mike the Mad Biologist writes, in his blog: During the last week, I’ve come across a couple sensationalist article about E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus being found on common surfaces. Here’s one article about shopping carts and E. coli… And here’s an article about Staphylococcus aureus (those S. aureus resistant to methicillin–and often other antibiotics–are […]
Parade of bearded scientists
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) took lots of good photos of the Improbable Research show, a featured event of the AAAS’s recent annual meeting, held in Washington, DC. The photographer captured, among many other things, the historic moment when a parade of bearded scientists went up to shake hands with Ig […]
How many microbes on/in a person?
Moelselio Schaechter and Stanley Maloy consider an old, and increasingly good question in the Small Things Considered blog: How often have you heard it said, or seen it stated in writing, that we carry ten times more microbial cells than cells of our own? We don’t dispute this figure, at least not as a ballpark […]