Monday, March 25, 2013

New TED talk on the teeming microbes in buildings

Is science getting cooler by the day or what? Check out this TED talk (with a very high tech/3D animation by Autodesk) on why we need to think about what microbes are in our buildings, from the air we breath when the windows are closed to what's in the bathroom. This is an idea whose time has come. I am thrilled to be meeting her and other faculty/students at the University of Oregon in the very near future when I visit the NIH Center for Systems Biology called The Microbial Ecology and Theory of Animals (META) Center. Graduate student Ashley Bateman, @MicrobesRock, invited me to speak on our work on the hologenome theory.

"Our bodies and homes are covered in microbes -- some good for us, some bad for us. As we learn more about the germs and microbes who share our living spaces, TED Fellow Jessica Green asks: Can we design buildings that encourage happy, healthy microbial environments?
Jessica Green wants people to understand the important role microbes play in every facet of our lives: climate change, building ecosystems, human health, even roller derby -- using nontraditional tools like art, animation and film to help people visualize the invisible world."  Source

No comments:

Post a Comment