The Five-second Rule

Five-second food rule has some merit

Jenn Harris 

We have all heard about the five-second rule. I myself have always wondered how true this was. Well good thing that Anthony Hilton led a research group then. Hilton had a group of biology students help conduct this experiment. The students studied the amount of E. Coli and Staphylococcus aureus bacteria on different substances after they had been dropped on the floor for three to 30 seconds. The group decided not to only test different types of foods but also different surfaces. Hilton's group used toast, pasta, biscuits and sticky, sweet foods to be tested on carpet, laminate and tiled surfaces. The results shocked me but first I will answer all of you are begging to know. “Bacteria was most likely transferred from laminate or tiled surfaces to moist foods that were dropped for more than five seconds.” It was also found that when food is dropped on carpet it was less likely to have a lot of bacteria. 

The result really boggles my mind because it seems like carpet would be able to hold more bacteria then a flat surface like tile. I will probably still use the 5 second rule no matter what. I would like to know if this is similar to letting kids eat dirt and boogers to help build their immune system. I think that more people should read this article because it was very interesting and I am glad I know more about the subject. 

 

http://www.latimes.com/food/dailydish/la-dd-five-second-rule-new-study-20140314-story.html#axzz2xZd7Bph7

Water

Bottled water contains more bacteria than tap water

Just reading the caption of this article was a shock to me. This article is informing it's reader that 70% of bottled water has more bacteria than tap water. I know that it is not possible for bottled water to be completely rid of bacteria but isn't the whole point of us buying bottled water so that we have cleaner and healthier water for our bodies. A microbiologist from Ccrest Laboratories said that the levels of bacteria in the bottled water were “surprisingly high.” For a microbiologist to say this is not a good thing at all. Dr. Azam, from Ccrest, said that, “bacteria in bottled water is unlikely to cause disease… but high levels of bacteria in bottled water could pose a risk for vulnerable population such as pregnant women, infants, immunocompromised patients and the elderly.” This is a very scary thing because these are the people that would be affected most and could become the sickest and they have no idea no one does. More people need to know about this topic because they could be in danger. 

I really enjoyed this article because it really is something to think about. Why buy water that is $4 just because it have a famous label on it when we could have almost free water from our homes. People always get grossed out with tap water because they think it's "dirty" but if they knew about this article I bet they would think completely different. I would like to know what bottled waters they tested. I would like to know which bottled waters make up the safe 30%. I am also curious to know what kind of bacteria is in a refrigerator water dispenser. Next time someone ask if I would like water I will ask for it to be from the tap. 

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7763038/Bottled-water-contains-more-bacteria-than-tap-water.html

Oral Bacteria

Oral Bacteria: What Lives In Your Mouth?

Wendy J. Woudstra 

This article is kind of scary in a way. The author Woudstra informs us that we can't feel, see or taste the hundreds of bacteria in our mouth. There are 700 hundred types of microorganisms that have been found in the human mouth. Within these 700 hundred types there are 34 to 72 different varieties that live within the mouth. "Most of these bacterial species appear to be harmless when it comes to our health. Others, known as probiotics, are beneficial bacteria that aid in the digestion of foods. Other bacteria actually protect our teeth and gums. There are some bacteria, however, that we'd rather do without, since they cause tooth decay and gum disease." Like with most microbes some don't do anything, some are good and some are bad. I feel that in this case it is worse to have the bad ones at all because they cause tooth decay and gum disease which people can see just talking to you. Streptococcus mutans and Porphyromonas gingivalis are the two most common found bacteria in mouth. The ways to avoid getting an oral bacteria with good oral care. Flossing and brushing are big ones but also watching the foods that you eat will help. 

This article was very well organized and was very easy to follow. I do feel that the author may be a little biased to the subject because I did find it on Colgate. The author was not creating a horrific picture like some biased authors might but she did let us know how it could affect us in bad ways. 

The questions I would have would be how easy is it to get a oral bacteria? I would also like to know how big a colony of bacteria would have to be to create an oral bacteria?

http://www.colgate.com/app/CP/US/EN/OC/Information/Articles/ColgateNewandNow/Personal/2013/May/article/SW-281474979087677.cvsp 

Chocolate

The secret to dark chocolate's health benefits?

AFP RELAXNEWS

Everyone's heard at least one time in their life that dark chocolate is good for you and now I know the reason why. This article talks about how microbes in our guts help make dark chocolate good for us and also for heart health. 

"Researchers have discovered a specific stomach bacteria that breaks down chocolate and ferments it into anti-inflammatory compounds, making the dark stuff highly useful in terms of heart health." The article informs me that there has been a lot of research done on this subject. Researchers have found that there are two microbes (bifidobacterium and lactic acid bacteria). These are to two microbes that are essential to the process inside of the gut. These microbes grow and ferment the chocolate causing the production of compounds that are anti-inflammatory.

The author of this article made it a little hard to follow the article because they used a lot of quotes from scientists that contained terms that I am not familiar. This made if difficult to keep up with how exactly certain things in chocolate are digested. I was able to get the main points but I wish that I could have understood more. The author was not biased in the article. 

The question I would have would be how much dark chocolate shows these health benefits?

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/dark-chocolate-good-thanks-gut-bacteria-article-1.1727196 

Wine

Microbes May Add Special Something to Wines

Nicholas Wade

In this article Wade tells the audience how microbes help make wine even better. He lets us know that microbes grow on the gapes and affect the health of the grapes. Wade talks about a research team that was put together that discovered why the same types of wine will taste different in different regions. They found out that different microbial communities grow in different regions causing the wines to taste different. He also explains that microbes can be put on grapes by many things such as "wind, insects and people, and may fail or flourish because of specific local conditions." Some places don't have some of the microbes that other microbes have make the wines either or worse in comparison. 

Wade was not biased about the subject but he did not give us any information on how some microbes make may makes wines not good. It makes me wonder if maybe there is no way for microbes to make wine taste bad or if he just did not include that information. The author did a very good job at getting the information across with details and facts. I was able to follow this article very easily which helped me understand it quickly.

The only question I would have would be if certain microbes can make wine taste bad. The article matches with what I learned in Microbiology about the wine making process.  

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/26/science/microbes-may-explain-some-of-the-mysteries-of-terroir-and-wine.html?_r=0 

Microbes on floating ocean plastics: Uncovering the secret world of the 'Plastisphere'

unknown 

This article is about how microbes that are living on floating pieces of plastic debris are affecting the ocean ecosystem. The invertebrates, humans and other animals are being treated by the microbes. The microbes that are living on the plastisphere are found to cause diseases in animals and humans. Researchers are now trying to find out "why these potentially dangerous bacteria live on the Plastisphere, how they got there and how they are affecting the surrounding ocean." The researchers also found that if fish or any other ocean life digest the plastic that they are helping the microbes become more deadly. This is possible because the bacteria gain more nutrients while passing through the animal guts. 

This is not a biased article. The author used a lot of examples in back up his/her points. This helped me as the reader have a better visual about what is happening with the ocean. I cannot compare this information to what I learned in class because we did not learn about it in class. I was not confused about any of the information and did not have any further questions. I think that the author did a great job at getting across what needed to be. I do have a new perspective on microbes in the ocean. I never knew that they were doing so much damage. It is scary to think that they still need to know so much more to figure out a solution. 

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/02/140224171658.htm

The toughest microbe in the world.

Deinococcus radiodurans

 

 

Deinococcus radiodurans is a gram positive bacterium that is .001 millimeters big . This bacterium is very tough in many ways. One of the ways is that it can handle a lot of radiation. The microbe can withstand 5,000 greys of gamma radiation where as a human can only with stand 2,000 greys. D. radiodurans is not able to completely get rid of the radiation but it helps with the clean up time and money. D. radiodurans structure is what helps the microbe be so resistant to radiation. There are six layers to the cells structure. The middle layers are where the heart of the cells is. This is where the plasma membrane is located. Next are two protective layers. These layers have not been proven to do anything important for the cell by scientists. The last two layers are the electrolucent zone and the protein subunits. When the microbe is exposed to the radiation it is broken up into hundreds of pieces. After this, the most amazing thing happens. D. radiodurans is able to fix its own DNA. The microbe repair its two stranded DNA by using RecA which is a protein essential to DNA repair. RecA plays a huge part in the repair process because it is the main player in both of the phases to fix the DNA. The process can take anywhere from an hour up to 24 hours. This is a very short time to stitch back together a radiation-shattered genome. The microbe can then go back and repeat the process over and over again. With this bacterium being able to repeat the process and also having help from a hundred more of its kind, the clean up time would be cut in half. These little guys don’t have a specific habitat so the can be found anywhere, which means they will always be here to help.



Microbes in Airplanes

Microbes in Airplanes 

Microorganisms that affect humans are all found in indoor environments. Since airplanes are such small places crammed with people bacteria is growing everywhere in the airplane cabins. The bacteria is not only transferred by direct contact but also airborne and droplets of human fluids. A single sneeze can travel at 100 mph and a 5 foot radius. The bacteria of a sneeze with travel up to 105 feet. In a plane there is not much room for a sneeze to spread so it is confined to a small space where it can reach more people as once. Microbes arising from environmental sources include bacteria, fungi and other organisms such as protozoa. It has been proven that the air can be sterilized ultraviolet germicidal irradiation.
This article did not really give reason or detail behind its information. I choose this article so that I could dissect it and understand what makes a article good and bad. So here it goes. The article had good information about the subject but it was organized very oddly. I felt like it jumped around from random stuff. What I mean by this is that there would be a topic and a little bit more into the article there was another piece of information about the topic. I hope to learn from this article how I can fix my writing skills and blog skills also.
This article really talks about how we can sterilize the air and to kill the germs they need to be cleaned thoroughly and quickly. This is interesting to me because from my understanding airplanes are not cleaned thoroughly at each stop so when they do isn't it just that much harder to kill all of the germs that have been building up? The article also talks a lot how ultraviolet germicidal irradiation and how it truly kills all of the bacteria living on all of the surfaces of the airplane. I feel like this should be used more in places that are full of bacteria that are hard to get rid of. this would prevent a lot of illnesses everywhere for everyone.

Microbes in The Water

The article I read is an informative piece that is talking about microbes in our water supply. I did not know anything about microbes in the water and I found this very interesting. The article starts off by telling its audience about the water and how it was good microbes that are not harmful to us. 

The pipes that hold the water eventually over time crate biofilms. These biofilms are helping the bad microbes attach themselves. Once the unhealthy microbes build up enough they break off and end up in our water supply. This is why sometimes your water is dis colored or tastes funny. Countries like the United Kingdom have figured out ways to test the water. The water testing has not turned out as great as they would like. 

When the water is tested they will decide if more chlorine needs to be put into the pipe lines or if in extreme cases flush out the whole system. This shuts down the whole system foe quite some time. "The way we currently maintain clean water supplies is a little like using antibiotics without knowing what infection we're treating," says Professor Biggs. "Although it's effective, it requires extensive use of chemicals or can put water supplies out of use to consumers for a period of time. Current testing methods also take time to produce results, while the bacteria are cultured from the samples taken. This quote shows us how amazing the process is but also how hard it is to keep up with. 

My questions would be 1) would they be a way to line the pipes with something the microbes can't hang on to. 2) how long does it take for the microbes to build up and break off because this would effect how much they have to clear the pipes. 3) how dangerous is the water that we. Drink that contains the bad microbes for us. 

University of Sheffield. "Bacteria commonly found in drinking water creates conditions which enable other -- potentially harmful -- bacteria to thrive." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 14 August 2013. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/08/130814124347.htm>.

The Importance of Microbes in Soil

Microbes in Soil

This article really gives you an idea how the food chain starts and how small the things are and how even though they are so small that they set off a very long reaction. The first sentence in the article really caught my attention because I didn't think it could be true and made me want to read on. It read    "without soil microbes, we would all die." After, I thought about it some more it made more since because if they can help and/or destroy something as complex as our body why can't it do the same for our soil and the food chain. Darius lays it out and tells us that of they are no microbes in the soil plants with not be able to grow because they are not getting the nutrients they need from the soil. It really amazes me that something can be thrown off so much due to something so little. Darius also tells us that microbes are like any living creature and need "food" to stay alive. Microbes feed off of organic matter that they find underground and the soil. With out microbes in the soil planted would be able to produce things such as oxygen, carbon and nitrogen. This information seems like it would be very beneficial to have more information because if it affects us this much people need to know what to be putting in the soil so that the chain is not broken and we are still getting what we need. In the article is says that the microbes "fix" the nitrogen in the air to make it usable for plants. So, my question is does it take out the bad stuff and reuse? Does it release it into the air? My other question is about gardening and if just using the store bought stuff is enough for the microbes to eat or do they need more? Or something different? 

http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/1936/#b 

From Birth, Our Microbes Become As Personal As A Fingerprint

I read an article that explains that microbes do a lot for your body and how you get them from your mother starting with the nine months in the womb. It also tells me that microbes love to live in wet places but that does not mean that all moist areas in our body shelter the same type of microbes. Microbes are so tiny but they do so much for our bodies. It is bring proven  ow that microbes are necessary to living.

The main message in the article is to show how much out body relies on microbes and that they live through out our whole body. Stein the author using examples about our bodies and also the whys of each example. This article talks about more finds and how now scientists truly believe that we absolutely need to live and keep us healthy. 

Microbes are so smart that they  know what to ignore in the body that is good for us. It is unbelievable that these things are so small and can help such a large and complex such as us. I was very interested to find out that microbes can be transferred from person to person. Are there other ways to transfer them besides breast feeding like through blood? The article also talks about how each persons microbe make up are different for everyone such as a finger print. Does this mean that we have different types of microbes all together or just different numbers of the microbes?

Making cheese with human skin microbes

Cheese created using the skin microbes of  humans

When I first saw the title of my article "Cheese created using the skin microbes of humans" I was a little grossed out. The article is about how there is cheese that has been made out of the skin microbes in humans but it also confirms that this type of cheese is not for eating but just for smelling. The main idea is just to tell us about how you can use any type of bacteria and microbes to make cheese even if it in not edible. There are not too many details in the article  it really just tells me that this I'd really just an experiment with making cheese and how it is usually made from bacteria from plants and animals. The article is very clear on letting us know about how this cheese is made from human skin microbes  and how it is defiantly not made for eating. It does confuse me that cheese is usually made from plants and animal bacteria and since scientists have discovered that we are not that different why is this one not a good idea to eat. I could see not many people wanting to try it but why is it not similar?  Is it because this cheese is made from skin instead of  bacteria?      
  

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2013/11/26/human-cheese-is-really-thing/

FLC 609

This FLC class is a combined class. The two classes are Microbial Ecology and English 102. Having the classes combined together and having the same people in the classes will help us get to know each other better. 

http://www.dreamstime.com/illustration/cartoon-virus-germ-bacteria.html