Jeez, Abba, we can’t use this stuff at all!
Ah, yes, my eldest has come to visit and doesn’t approve of my fridge holdings. Because she, like so many others, doesn’t understand the markings imprinted on food packages.
Continue reading No fuzzy wuzzies!
More than a few years ago, my youngest daughter (and my youngest for a very, very, very long time, until the surprise of a new brother) arrived.
Way back when I was first starting out as a chemical engineer, I had the opportunity to meet some pioneers in the field of bioengineering. No, this time I don’t mean the medical version of bioengineering- but the biochemical types. Drs. Arnie Demain, Elmer Gaden, Art Humphrey, Danny Wang.
Continue reading 21st Century at last?
Some 40 years ago, we developed a strain of microbes that converted ammonia to nitrogenous gases. The goal was to find a way to augment a waste treatment system’s ability to purify the water. Oh, we found uses for it at many facilities. Not the least of which were seasonal facilities that handled poultry wastes. (These facilities ramped up to handle the demand for turkeys around Thanksgiving and Christmas, when the ambient temperatures were pretty low. That meant the normal capabilities of a system to biologically remove ammonia were greatly diminished.)
Way, way back in 1928, Arthur Fleming, who was working at St. Mary’s Hospital, found a contaminant amongst his petri dishes laden with Staphylococcus aureus. It’s not unusual for microbial petri dishes to be contaminated- and we continually strive to improve our practices to insure this is not the case. (It certainly was more prevalent in the past.)
Continue reading Positive for Gram Positive?
Way back in the 70s and 80s, when I was heavily involved with fixed media waste treatment systems for water reuse, we had a problem. Many of those facilities had fly infestations. So, we began adding Bacillus thuringiensis (BT) microbes to the mix. These microbes secreted a chemical that took care of the flies. (We actually manufactured the microbial mutants on peanut hulls, which kept the microbes on the surface of the water (peanut hulls tend to float).
Continue reading A new way to fight pests?
Now, this is thinking outside the box. Dr. Adam Driks (Loyola, Illinois) is a microbiologist who has been studying spores for a while. A spore is a protective shell (actually, concentric shells) that some microbes form to keep themselves preserved during periods of environmental stress. It was originally thought to be like a walnut shell protecting the valuable components within. But, Driks has been studying Bacillus spores and found that when the relative humidity changes, so does the spore itself.
Lots of hoopla this week (when this was written). The FDA is finally acting- it’s asking the big farms to stop using antibiotics when their animals are not sick. What, you say? You mean we use antibiotics for animals that are healthy? You betcha!
Continue reading Why don’t my drugs work?
Three of them. Yup. I have three sponges in my kitchen. One for meat, one for dairy, and one for the counters. Ah, the pleasures of keeping kosher. Do you know how hard it is to find THREE different colored sponges to use?
Continue reading Do you know what lurks?
