microbiologist

For most of us, staying in a hotel room is either something of a necessity – think business travel – or something to look forward to as part of a holiday or wider excursion.But what if I told you there's a large chance your hotel room, despite how it might appear to the naked eye, isn't that clean. And even if it's an expensive room, that doesn't necessarily mean it's any less dirty.Indeed, whoever has stayed in your room prior to you will have deposited bacteria, fungi, and viruses all over the furniture, carpets,…

By Rodney E. Rohde, Texas State University May 20, 2022The first human case of monkeypox was recorded in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) during a period of intensified effort to eliminate smallpox. Credit: CDCOn May 18, 2022, Massachusetts health officials and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed a single case of monkeypox in a patient who had recently traveled to Canada. Cases have also been reported in the United Kingdom and Europe.Monkeypox isn’t a new disease. The first…

Hidden below the waves, the ocean contains vast reserves of sugar that we never were aware of, according to new research.Scientists have discovered that seagrass meadows on the ocean floor can store huge amounts of the sweet stuff underneath their waving fronds – and there are major implications for carbon storage and climate change.  The sugar comes in the form of sucrose (the main ingredient of sugar used in the kitchen), and it's released from the seagrasses into the soil underneath, an area directly affected by the…