Elio Schaechter comments on state microbes at NPR (podcasts)

It seems that Wisconsinites are not getting their own state microbe after all. What a shame!







Transcripts of these radio podcasts are available at the NPR website:
- A state microbe for cheese-crazed Wisconsin? April 16th, 2010.
- No state microbe for Wisconsin. April 28th, 2010.


From Wikipedia:

National Public Radio (NPR) is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to 797 public radio stations in the United States.

NOTE added on May 7th, 2010:
For a thorough list of candidate state microbes, see State Microbes at Small Things Considered, May 6th, 2010.

NOTE added on October 11th, 2010:
More suggestions (including several streptomycetes) by Joan W. Bennett & Douglas Eveleigh (Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey): State Microbes, Microbe magazine, October 2010.

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"Hope he's only a Sunday creationist" by G. Trudeau

This comic strip by Garry Trudeau was published in 2006, so you may already know it. Here, a doctor offers two antibiotic choices to a patient suffering from tuberculosis (TB). The choice appears to depend on the patient's religious beliefs. I hope the patient chose wisely -- for his own benefit and for that of all the people that could be otherwise infected by his spreading of TB microbes.



Interestingly, cartoonist Garry Trudeau is the great-grandson of Dr. Edward Trudeau, who founded the Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium for the treatment of pulmonary TB, at Saranac Lake, New York State, in 1884. It was found at the time that tuberculous patients greatly benefited from a "rest cure" that included lots of mountain fresh air, and good nutrition. The sanatorium was later renamed and reorganized as a biomedical research center. Known today as the Trudeau Institute, it is devoted to researching our immune system to find better ways of preventing and treating human diseases, including TB, influenza, tropical diseases and cancer.



Credits for images:
- Cartoon:
Author: Garry Trudeau (Doonesbury.com). Source: GoComics.
- Stamp:
United States Postal Service. Stamp designed by Howard E. Paine and created by Mark Summers, based on a photograph of Dr. Trudeau provided by the American Lung Association. Source: The Stamp Collecting Round-up. See also a press release at EurekAlert.


Hat tip:
Comunicar ciencia con humor [in Spanish] by José Pardina, Asociación Española de Comunicación Científica (AECC) [Spanish Association for Science Communication].

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Social media for microbiology education and research

Vincent Racaniello is a well-known Professor of Microbiology at Columbia University Medical Center, New York. As a complement to his research and his classes on virology, he successfully uses different social media tools (blogging, podcasting, microblogging) to spread the love for viruses -- I mean, to teach the public about viruses (the kind that make you sick... or not).

The following video is a recording of a great talk he gave at the Spring 2010 meeting of the Society for General Microbiology in Edinburgh, UK. In this presentation he explains -- in simple terms -- how he uses blogging, podcasting, and other social media tools for the popularization of virology.

I'm wondering if the talk could convince a few of the microbiologists in the audience to jump on the social media bandwagon...? Anyone?


The video is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license, and can be watched also at BioCrowd or at Virology Blog.


Image credits: "Jump on the social media bandwagon" by Matt Hamm. Source: Flickr. Image used under an Attribution-Noncommercial Creative Commons license.

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Beauty contests for promoting science?

I was browsing the printed edition of a local newspaper (for a London borough), and a brief story caught my eye: Top genes expert is UK Miss India.

To be honest, I had to read the headline twice to grasp its meaning. "Top genes expert" is not a very common expression (actually, I searched Google and found no results, which is remarkable these days!). And "UK Miss India" was also a little confusing to me... but it may be just me.

The story was about a local resident who happened to win a beauty contest. Nothing special here -- lots of pretty people live in my neighbourhood :) . What caught my attention was that the beauty queen works as "a stem cell researcher at Imperial College Healthcare Trust." At the official Imperial College website I found that she is a professional model and actress, and "she intends to spend her reign promoting science and medicine, while undertaking community projects."

First I should say that I admire anybody who does research and, at the same time, is engaged in a different activity in a professional way (not just as a hobby). I wasn't capable to do that in my research days.

Anyway, I used to think that beauty contests and science popularization were two unconnected issues. But now I'm not so sure. Science can be promoted in many different ways...

Perhaps a modified version of today beauty contests could be used for the promotion and popularization of science.

What do you think? Do you know of any examples of this, or anything similar?



Somewhat related links:
- Science Babes and Science Hunks. I, Science (a science magazine for Imperial College), 15th January 2010. A list of sexy scientists in cinema.
- Sexy Science- "a look into the hottest science currently going on today and the hot scientists behind that work." Or so they say...
- Science Babe - "the science of everyday life". The first video, "The physics of high heels", is interesting. I'm curious about how this effort for science popularization will develop...
- We're scientists AND we're sexy! - a Facebook group.
- Sexy Science - stock photographic images. It seems that you may become a sexy scientist by wearing a white labcoat and big glasses, AND looking like an expressionless robot...
- Geeks are Sexy - "tech, science, news and social issues for geeks".


Beauty and sexiness are relative concepts. You may find this scientist pretty or attractive in some way...

Image credits: the science of fizz, by goopymart. This image is included here under an Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike Creative Commons license.

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