TRAIN Scholar James Head's Blog

 I was not sure what I was going to write about today, until I read one of my fellow student's blogs. She had mentioned gender equality as a concern of hers. After a video I recently watched, I can understand why.  Last week a faculty member in our microbiome group mentioned in passing a video called "Picture a Scientist" done by NOVA. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/video/picture-a-scientist/. By the name, I thought it was going to be a fun video about different science fields and what they do. To my surprise, it was about the sexual/verbal abuse female scientists suffer from their coworkers, unequal pay, stolen credit, the lot. When I hear "female scientist" the first name that pops up in my head is Marie Curie. I watched a documentary on her research, and how mentally and physically exhausting it was. I honestly don't think I could have done it. She was brilliant, determined, and incredibly tough. The thought of someone mistreating a treasure like her is un...

  Happy Earth Day! The final presentation of this semester was done by Anton Sachs on the paper: Healthy Soil for Healthy plants for Healthy humans, by Heribirt Hirt.  Healthy soils for healthy plants for healthy humans[64][72].pdf Our food web (chain) is very complex. At the very base of it all lies microbes. These microbes supply key nutrients to us both directly as metabolites, and indirectly via plants and animals. Disruption of the soil and water microbiomes by chemicals, such as pesticides, can render those specific areas infertile, or at the very least contaminate the plants and animals that are produced (the food we consume). Changes to the soil microbiome can even alter the taste and smell of our foods. Contaminated water ways, in the same manner, harm that microbiome,  impacting the surrounding fish and plant life, again altering our food supply. These microbes also help produce the very air we breathe, and as such, their well being and ours are tied together. C...

  We did not have a speaker for this week, but I found an article to share that I thought was interesting: “Probiotic Escherichia coli Ameliorates Antibiotic-Associated Anxiety Responses in Mice”, by Kiwoong Park, Suhyeon Park, et Al., Nutrients 2021, 13(3), 811; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13030811 . In the experiment they injected a chemical into mice that increased stress level and caused weight gain. Afterwards they infected the mice with a strain of E. coli. The E. coli was able to counteract the chemical,  reducing the stress level of the mice and stopping the weight gain. This supports the idea that our microbes not only impact our body, but our emotions as well. They have the power to change who we are, to a point.   Here is a much older example. A few weeks ago in my Archeology class, we were discussing Otzi the ice man.  Otzi is a 5300-year-old mummy that was discovered well preserved in the ice on top of the Alps. Doctors found that Otzi had been murdere...

          Todays presentation was by ASU student Paul Kado. The presentation was a review of the paper “Rosacea and the Microbiome: A Systematic Review” Daou et al, Dermatol Ther (Heidelb), 2021 11(1):1-12. doi: 10.1007/s13555-020-00460-1.  Rosacea and the Microbiome: A Systematic Review. - Abstract - Europe PMC Rosacea is a common skin condition that causes redness, flushing, papules, pustules, telangiectasia, and rhinophyma.                                                                                                                REDNESS/FLUSHING: TELANGIECTASIA: RHINOPHYMA: PAPULE/PUSTULE: The paper discusses ho...