An interesting talk I went to once discussed biofilms in public buildings such as hospitals and schools. The speaker had collected pipe samples from a variety of buildings and had analysed the scum growing inside for common disease-causing microbes. From memory, they had found Legionella in a fairly high proportion of these films. The conclusion …
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Swamps, bogs, and backwaters
I will happily tell anyone that my favourite environment is the desert. Dry air, knee-high shrubbery, rocks. Though to be fair, remarkably little soil. My second favourite environment are wetlands (from one extreme to the other I guess). Though again, I prefer meadows, bogs and seeps to swamp forests and heavily treed places. Wetlands are …
Drink that salt solution
I have come to a sudden realisation that things you do to look after yourself during exercising in the heat are the exact same things you should do while harvesting an experiment in the heat. In my specific case, drinking electrolyte replacements. Working hard in hot and humid environments often leaves me feeling nauseated from …
Scientists are hoarders
Or, more to the point, the state of storage facilities and offices in every institution I’ve ever been to suggests most scientists are hoarders. Four things tend to be hoarded in soil science – soil, equipment/chemicals, paperwork, and broken furniture. Paperwork and broken furniture hoarding are probably just a side effect of being busy or …
Black sand at the beach
When I was younger I went to a beach in southeast Queensland. This beach has streaks of black sand and I was convinced that it was some terrible environmental disaster that was sure to be toxic or poisonous or worse (not sure what could be worse now, but at the time it was terrible). I …
International postdoc – part two
Once the bureaucratic seas have been successfully navigated, working in China has been nice. The stereotype of people working 12 hour days and taking meals at their desk is not the case in my lab at least. People arrive at approximately 9, leave at about 5:30 and eat lunch at one of several canteens. It’s …
