Need some good microbiology kids books? Take a look at the Reading Round-Up!
Reading Round-Up: Microbiology Books for Kids!
The Great Yogurt Experiment: Part II – Mesophilic (room temperature) Heirloom yogurt
Tasting the bacterial diversity and seeing pH difference using yogurt fermentation for microbiology teaching. I love the idea that invisible microbes can change their habitat so much we macro-organisms will pay attention and even help them! After all, people have maintained yogurt cultures for generations. Take for example the Heirloom yogurts from Culture for Health that I have been playing with and am considering sending to my General Microbiology class this semester. One overarching theme in my microbiology class is always that microbial diversity provides multiple solutions to the same “problem”. Diversity Matters! In this case – different combinations of bacteria can take the same milk, break-up the milk sugars, and poop out lactic acid. The lactic acid lowers the pH of the yogurt, which protects yogurt from pathogenic bacteria (molds can still grow though given enough time). Lactic acid gives the tart, sour taste to yogurt. To teach my General Microbiology students that microbes – just by growing – can dramatically change their habitat. This semester students will culture their own yogurt to see and taste the difference! The problem is most store-bought yogurts grow best at 113 °F (45 °C). That’s pretty warm. That was tricky during my
PATHOGENESIS 2.0 and the “Sex”spansion
It’s back and sexier than ever! My family’s favorite deck building game – Pathogenesis – expands to include an “adult” version as it launches a 2nd printing on Kickstarter February 12, 2019. No longer is your custom-created microbial army limited to attacking skin, gastrointestinal (GI), or respiratory (lung) systems. Instead, Pathogenesis gets sexy with specialized sexually transmitted disease (STD) microbes attacking the Genitourinary tract (GU). In turn, the human body comes to version 2.0 with a strengthened immune system that makes it harder than ever to beat. Which tract will you colonize? Will you succeed in penetrating the body’s barriers and dismantle the active immune system? Play and see. What is Pathogenesis? Pathogenesis is a deck-building game where you are tasked with creating a pathogen to *cue scary music * attack and destroy an organ system of the human body. In Pathogenesis everyone starts with the same number of starter cards (a mix of DNA cards and microbes). Each turn you can select a new trait (that enters your draw pile for future turns), add traits from your current hand to your pathogen pile, attack, and redraw. As you successfully attack the human body, you gain DNA points that can
Book Review: “Your Baby’s Microbiome” is an Excellent Resource
Your Baby’s Microbiome: The Critical Role of Vaginal Birth and Breastfeeding for Lifelong Health summarizes the latest scientific research on the benefits of vaginal birth and breastfeeding to an infant’s microbiome. Written for childbirth educators, doulas, midwives, lactation consultants, and interested parents, Your Baby’s Microbiome is packed full of detailed information on the microbial and epigenetic differences between vaginal and c-section births. For the parent debating between a scheduled c-section or vaginal birth – this book is a must read. Your Baby’s Microbiome provides all readers with the latest science – straight from the researchers – on how vaginal birth and breastfeeding are thought to influence gut microbiome establishment. Sticks to the Data I greatly appreciated the restraint of the authors in discussing areas like water-birthing and in-caul births, where the research has not been done. They make it extremely clear that the research hasn’t been done, but then do provide thoughtful ideas from the data currently available. I find this extremely important for such a rapidly developing science. Perhaps the reason Your Baby’s Microbiome doesn’t over-reach is because the book was written from interviews with the scientists done for the documentary Microbirth. “The movie had to have one central message and we
Ask Professor Microbe: Should I buy refrigerated probiotics?
“Hey Professor Microbe” – the text from my next-door neighbor read – “What probiotics are better for me to buy, the ones on the shelf or the ones that are refrigerated?” Professor Microbe (Anne @mostlymicrobes): “Why are you buying probiotics?” Neighbor: “General gut health” PM: “Don’t! Spend the money on PRE-biotics – fruits, veggies, and live fermented foods.” Probiotics are quite the established health fad with over 36.6 billion USD in sales in 2015! WOAH! In general, we don’t need them. The average person who eats a healthy diet full of fruits and vegetables feeds their own personal “probiotics” in their digestive system, primarily the large intestine. Feed what you have. Think whole grains and “Eat a Rainbow” of different colors and kinds of plants. My favorite gut microbiome-food book talking about good eating and the gut microbiome is The Good Gut. For an idea of what my family and I eat, check out my Instagram feed or #feedthemicrobes. “When should a healthy person take probiotics?” Pretty much just after taking wide spectrum antibiotics. These antibiotics kill many different kinds of bacteria – invading pathogens and your native microbes (tetracyclines, cephalosporins, aminopenicillins (ampicillin, amoxicillin)). For people with medical issues, I