More #MicrobeWeek YouTube videos including one we made.

Yesterday’s post on #MicrobeWeek featured a fabulous video Microbes of New York from the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). #MicrobeWeek was inspired the current microbially focused exhibition The Secret World Inside You, at AMNH (see my review). AMNH teamed up with BrainCraft, Gross Science, and Science Friday to create four YouTube videos and other content about their favorite microbial research.

Sleep and Bacteria?

“Good Sleep = Good Gut” was a fun piece by Brain Craft done featuring felt bacteria teaching about the importance of sleep for the bacterial microbiome. As a sleep-deprived mom, I’ve not read the sleep microbiome literature much. It was great to learn about the connection between poor sleep, cortisol, behavior, and microbiome diversity. Similar to AMNH’s video it was cute, yet informative.

Rotting Teeth – YUCK!

Gross Science certainly is good at gross.  In the 3 minute video “What Really Causes Cavities” there were probably more pictures of tooth decay and gum disease than at a dental hygienist’s convention. However, Anna got her point across. Bacteria that love sugary foods produce acid, which corrodes teeth. Let’s see if I can use that video as a reminder to our toddler to brush her teeth.

We’re all PigPen

Finally, Science Friday released an interesting video, “Your Very Special Bacterial Cloud”. Featuring the work of Drs. Jessica Green and Roxana Hickey at the University of Oregon. I follow some Built Microbiome work and had read a paper about the bacterial cloud that we all emit. It was thrilling to see the experimental set-up that Dr. Green’s group uses to examine our bacterial clouds. It will be interesting to see their future work on how bacterial clouds mix from people sitting beside each other. The Science Friday video was aimed more at the high school and older set. It wasn’t as appealing to the elementary school crew in front of my laptop, though Jac said she thought they were asking interesting questions she wouldn’t have thought to ask.

Inspiring Conversations and More

These four videos are great teaching tools, as well as a way to start interesting conversations about microbes and our health. I especially liked that the first three all stressed that your microbial and, in turn, human health is up to you. In fact, they inspired us to make our own video. Jac, immediately made a bacterium out of play dough and brought it to me. Microbial art is always appreciated in our house. Her creativity fed mine and what with #MicrobeWeek overlapping with 30+ inches of snow from Blizzard Jonas and 1 week off of school – well take a look at our attempt. Enjoy.