Preface: I do not have a brain eating amoeba, and I understand the likelihood is low that I'll ever get it. I was swimming in my chlorinated pool (about 2ppm Cl concentration that I shocked the night before) with some algae growth still floating around when I wondered about the environmental stressors and tolerance of N. fowleri to chlorine and other chemicals. I'm genuinely curious, not a hypochondriac.

That said...

I'm having issues finding any sources with the information I'm interested in. A search on Google gives me the AI generated answer and a million people freaking out that they got water up their nose. Does anyone know of any sources or studies relating to the tolerance of N. fowleri or other eukaryotes/amoeba to chlorine and other chemicals?

Edit: Thanks for the advice everyone. I've started narrowing my search parameters with "chlorine" since my other Google scholar searches were about infections or public drinking water. I'm an engineer with a fairly wide STEM background, so I'm understanding what I'm reading. Thanks again.

I took basic microbiology and clinical microbiology in pharmacy school, and I absolutely loved it! I would love to learn more about microbiology (esp the clinical side of things). I really enjoy this subreddit, but I'd love to get recs for ways to learn about microbiology without having my head buried in a textbook. Any interesting books, apps, websites youtubers or creators to follow. Thanks!!

Hello! I'm a first-year biology student in undergrad and am beginning to develop an interest in prokaryotes, specifically extremophiles. I'm also gaining interest in fungi, specifically medical mycology. My intro-level courses tackled them very lightly and I'd like to learn more about them. Any good textbook recommendations on prokaryotes (or specifically prokaryotic extremophiles) and mycology would be greatly appreciated!

If you have any studies or textbooks on eukaryotic extremophiles, I would appreciate those as well!

Hii I'm ritika from india I've completed my bachelors in microbiology but honestly couldn't focus much on mu degree due to some issues and well now imnnot very fond of it and started hating the whole degree itself. Now I have to choose a master focus for myself...I want to learn how to work around and love my subject but really are no clue. I decided on taking up public health for masters but I am very confused in between what to choose. Would love some suggestions or guidance and if anyone can motivate me with their own story of how and why they love their microbiology degree and how it's helping them now...it'd really help me out much.

I'm working on a small videogame about microbiology where you slowly evolve your cell to gain abilities and compete with other cells (More educational than Spore, but less dense than Thrive). While researching different Archaea for that branch of the evolutionary tree I found out that there are types of Archaea that use sunlight to drive ion pumps for energy. I thought this was super interesting and wanted to include it as a contrast to the photosynthetic cells but I can't find very much information other than they exist and they aren't photosynthetic.

My main question is, do these cells also use green pigments to attract sunlight like most photosynthetic cells, or would they be a different color since they use it for a very different process?

Hi! Anatomy student here, with a question sparked by a previous post here. I noticed that in my anatomy lab at school, the only ppe are reusable lab coats, face shields, masks, and gloves. Many people wear their clothes after lab to the library/class. I think anatomy tools are washed in the same sink where we wash our hands. Is there potential for fomite transfer outside of anatomy lab, especially when my lab isn’t really concerned about prions or infectious particles at all? I’ve been told that cadaver dissection is 100% safe but honestly reading about all this stuff kind of makes me wonder/worry.

Hi, I'm helping my wife with her paper to get a degree. I'm looking for a journal that is free to publish an ideally fast to submit a review about microbial fuel cells. Can somebody help me with a suggestions? We are in a complicated spot. I don't care about the impact, etc. Thank you!

Check out this research about moose, bear and geese scat

https://preview.redd.it/w9iz1q79d69d1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=d5f78b5ff471f4a1c5271bf5943b6a49c66f9777

I have a jelly squishy toy that had a hole in it, so I filled it with jelly (agar) and glued it back together. Now I suddenly remembered that agar is used in petridishes because it is the perfect breeding ground for bacteria. Is this thing safe to use still? Should I get rid of it completely?

I’m not sure if I can post this here, but this sub always eases my irrational anxiety when y’all chime in about bacteria and such. I want to start harvesting my home grown herbs and plants and dehydrate them for tea. Some say not to wash because it can reduce the oils etc. I was wondering if there’s anything at a microscopic level that I’d need to be worried about. Is there anything in bug poop I’d need to worry about? What if I didn’t see bird poop on it? Thank you in advance. :)

Hello!

We are looking at making a list for invited speakers for the upcoming year in my PhD program. I want to be able to contribute, but many of the scientists I know by name are specific to my field and I dont only want to offer up suggestions related to my work. I was wondering if there are any really cool up and coming microbiologists who have interesting work that I should check out (and also how people come across this information- I know I'm partially limited because I spend most of my reading time on articles closely related to my work, but I am not sure how some of my colleagues know so many names in micro)!

Any help or advice would be appreciated!

I applied to a hospital for a clinical pathology lab assistant and was asked by the hiring manager to apply to their full time microbiologist position after she saw my transcripts. I'm recently graduated with B.S. in biology and all of my micro experience (class, work & research) has been in an university lab. I am excited for the opportunity because every job posting I've found for microbiology has wanted a masters or a bachelors with 10 years experience (neither of which I have). The hiring manager specifically asked if I knew how to do gram stains, which I thought was weird because like it was a huge part of my lab practical (like if I didn't do it well I failed lab) so I just assumed most people who take microbiology know how to do a gram stain. My question i guess is there anything I should know about working a bench in a hospital lab? Anything I should prepare for my interview next week? I planned to bring my research paper to help given them an idea of my micro research of been conducting over the last year (if they have interest). Anything I should ask particularly, outside of the normal job interview stuff? The hiring manager also stated that after I worked for them for a few months I would need to sit for the ASCP micro exam.

I want to be clear that this will not be my first job (I have worked as a medical assistant for many years). This will just be my first job in microbiology (first job since completing my bachelor's)

What do you all use for incubating hundreds of plates at a time? I work in QC pharm micro, and I need to incubate around 200 plates for a study in a 30-35C incubator. What has worked best for you? TIA!

No known instances of poisoning. But, something is wrong with their processing that MIGHT allow botulism toxin. Any ideas what could have gone wrong?

Howdy folks,

Prions keep popping up in my newsfeed, for whatever reason, and while I'm not a scientist, I am tremendously interested in learning more about them.

I was wondering: Do folks that contact potentially contaminated brain or nerve tissue, like anatomists or surgeons or their students/trainees, have the risk of tracking human prions (CJD, vCJD) out of their labs or operation rooms and spreading it to surfaces and their own belongings? I know the things don't reproduce unless they contact more prions, but they're also a pain to eliminate (unsure if they can be washed away, though).

And, more spooky, can folks inoculate themselves accidentally by touching a mucous membrane or eating after touching an unknowingly exposed item or skin area? How can a researcher or surgeon even really clean themselves reliably and consistently? — redditors have talked about bleach but that sounds awfully painful!

If you lurk a few of the other science subreddits, this may seem redundant; I've been super curious about this for a few days and I'm really digging up any data that is hiding out there :) Primary source articles are appreciated!!

Thanks folks and much appreciation for the hard studying and work you've done to work with some really cool and dangerous stuff!