GoKawiilA new study could fuel debate about whether the Bunsen burner still has a place in the modern lab. Plus, the United States is shifting a huge swathe of biomedical research to the military and boat-bashing orcas are just having a good time.
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The Bunsen burner’s future in modern microbiology labs is flickering, some scientists say. Credit: Alfonso Fabio Iozzino/Alamy
Bunsen burners, long used to cleanse airspaces and surfaces in labs of bacteria-laden particles, aren’t actually very effective at doing so, and might even make contamination worse. Researchers seeded the air above lab benches with the bacterium Gordonia rubripertincta and opened two Petri dishes — one near a lit Bunsen burner and one near an unlit one. They found that in several trials of differently sized burners, bacterial levels in dishes beside lit burners were as high as or higher than the other ones.
Nature | 5 min read
Reference: Microbiology Spectrum paper
The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has signed an agreement with the US Department of Defense to redirect research projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars from its institute for infectious diseases to military biodefence programmes. The 10-year agreement would establish a pathway to move funding out of the NIH “on a project-by-project basis”, said an agency spokesperson in a statement. But some researchers worry that shifting biomedical research to the military threatens the transparency and clinical translation that define NIH-funded work.
Nature | 6 min read
The Iberian orcas (Orcinus orca) ramming boats off the coasts of Spain and Portugal are more likely to be playing than showing aggression, researchers say. Videos of orcas in the act show that perpetrators were almost always juveniles, and contact with boats was often gentle. Bumpers also occasionally brought ‘gifts’ such as pieces of fish to the boats. The findings could dispel a popular theory that the orcas are seeking revenge for injuries caused by boats. “If you want to avenge yourself, you don’t bring food, you know?” says orca researcher Janek Andre.
Science | 5 min read
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