Its catapult to popularity may have been triggered by the pandemic-induced yeast shortages, but even months later, when instant yeast is once again available at most grocery stores, sourdough’s...
We have been inundated with discussions of viruses but there are other types of microbes out there as well. Fungi, algae, protozoa and of course, bacteria. The latter are not only out there, but...
After Alexander Fleming’s 1928 discovery of a mold that inhibited Staphylococci bacteria growth and the first treatment of a patient with penicillin in 1942, demand for this antibiotic grew rapidly...
A vaccine contains an attenuated or inactivated microorganism (or part of one) so that your immune system can prepare itself for an eventual infection. The content of the vaccine must be...
Never has “Happy Birthday” been sung with such frequency. Two stanzas are just about the right length of time, about twenty to thirty seconds, for a proper hand wash. And we should be washing....
The custom of double kissing on the cheek as a form of greeting has always bugged me. Microbugged me. Do we really need to punctuate an encounter by exchanging oral microbes? What’s wrong with a...
The term derives from “quaranta giorni,” meaning 40 days, and traces back to the 14th century when the city of Dubrovnik, now in Croatia, was under Venetian rule. The Great Pestilence, or the Great...
It started with a video of a woman, supposedly in Wuhan, eating a bat. The inference, with racist overtones, is that the Chinese habit of consuming strange foods has now put the population of the...