Crafty Microbiology: Teaching Microbiology Skills Online

Crafty Microbiology: Teaching Microbiology Skills Online

Crisis inspires innovation! We developed Crafty Microbiology to teach essential microbiology skills at home using safe, common, cheap craft supplies and disposable lab tools. A.M. Estes, A.S. Jozwick, and J.E. Kerr 2021 How can you teach students fundamental microbiology skills at home – safely? The COVID-19 pandemic has been quite the disruptor for educators and students alike. To stop the spread of this virus, we human hosts need to stay away from each other! SARS-CoV2 is super tricky since many infected people don’t show symptoms or have mild symptoms. So what do you do when the skills your students need to learn can’t be done face-to-face? In-person Microbiology Labs Microbiology laboratory, in particular, is tough to teach to students at home. Typically students learn how to grow and test non-disease-causing bacteria in the Microbiology teaching labs on campus. Growing bacteria requires special media “food” for the bacteria, incubators to keep the cultures at the right temperature, and lab equipment – including Bunsen burners and special tools for moving the bacteria. A fundamental skill is learning “Sterile” or “Aseptic” technique. Students learn how to grow only the non-pathogenic, Risk Group 1 microbes they are given. Sounds easy – right? Well, no.

Book Review: “Your Baby’s Microbiome” is an Excellent Resource

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?

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

Put a Microscope in the Hands of Everyone! Foldscope launches Kickstarter!

Put a Microscope in the Hands of Everyone! Foldscope launches Kickstarter!

Who would you educate with a pocket-sized paper microscope that costs ~ $1? Foldscope launches a Kickstarter campaign to “put a microscope in everyone’s hands.” Want to visit another world full of bizarre and beautiful creatures like you’ve never before imagined? Such a hidden world surrounds you wherever you are – the microscopic world. What? Don’t you have a microscope? Foldscope, a new Kickstarter project, aims to change that. Foldscope is a microscope made out of folded paper, a lens the size of a pinhead, and a piece of plastic to serve as a coverslip over a paper “slide”. With these simple materials, my 8-year-old daughter entered the fascinating microscopic world. Foldscope’s goal is to distribute at least a 1 million paper microscopes around the world to share the mystery and beauty of the hidden world around us. Considering their Kickstarter campaign had 1,000 backers and $40,000 of their $50,000 goal within 2 hours of launch, they are easily positioned to do that. However, they need scientists and educators to help convey the wonder of the microscopic world to the public. As one of the inventors, Manu Prakash told me, “This isn’t just a personal tool, but is about bringing

Antibiotic Awareness Week 2016 – Some Resources

Antibiotic Awareness Week 2016 – Some Resources

The World Health Organization declared November 14-20, 2016 as Antibiotic Awareness Week to highlight the importance of safely using antibiotics to limit the spread of antibiotic resistance.  This week, Antibiotic Awareness Week 2016, I’ll be highlighting some great resources and fabulous work being done to try to save us from an “Antibiotic Winter” – a time when bacteria cannot be killed by our strongest antibiotics. If you’ve ever questioned the evolution of antibiotic resistance or how quickly it can happen, watch this amazing video below. Each rectangle on the plate is an increasing concentration of antibiotic. In TWO WEEKS the bacteria are resistant to the strongest dose (100,000 times the starting concentration). If you are interested in an EXCELLENT general book about the problem – read Missing Microbes by Martin Blazer, see my posts below for more details and links to his talks.