When hearing the term “malnutrition,” most people probably think of something along the lines of underweight children wasting away in a foreign country. However, malnutrition is much closer to home than most people typically realize. Malnutrition can actually refer to two broad categories of nutritional imbalance: one is “undernutrition” (wasting, stunting of growth, and associated … Continue reading The double burden of malnutrition and the microbiome
Environmental contaminants, antibiotics, and the microbiome
I have previously written about how foods we eat affect our microbiomes, but new research is increasingly revealing that chemicals in our environments that we do not consider food (or sometimes even realize we are ingesting) can equally well throw off our microbial balance. For example, most adults in the United States have some level … Continue reading Environmental contaminants, antibiotics, and the microbiome
Circadian Rhythms and Ragas
A time for everything: Circadian rhythms Have you ever wondered why you could breeze through a certain task at one time of day, but if done at a different time that same task felt impossible? Or why changing the time of your workout dramatically improved your sleep? The answers to these questions and others can … Continue reading Circadian Rhythms and Ragas
Biohacking
It has been awhile since my last post, so first of all I am excited to announce that I have opened a Microbial Mood Society6 online shop! Now you may buy cyanotype scanning electron microscope images on prints, stickers, and even cutting boards! Check it out here: https://society6.com/microbial_mood Aside from opening a shop, I … Continue reading Biohacking
The Social Microbiome
Could higher sociability be linked to greater gut microbiome diversity in humans? A new study seems to suggest that it may be.* Firstly, it is pertinent to note that greater microbe diversity is generally associated with a healthier gut and therefore healthier creature (with lower diversity associated with increased stress, anxiety, and depressive behavior). I … Continue reading The Social Microbiome
Microbiota, It’s Cold Outside
I recently stumbled across some research into how gut bacteria may help regulate body temperature (a.k.a. thermoregulation). As someone who has the body temperature regulation skills of a tropical plant, I was intrigued. According to a recent article, researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences have found evidence that the gut microbiota play an important … Continue reading Microbiota, It’s Cold Outside
Real and Raw
Many of you have probably heard of the raw food diet. The idea behind eating foods that have not been heated over a certain degree (usually around 48˚C/ 118˚F) will retain certain enzymes and other key nutrients that are destroyed at high temperatures (such as vitamin C). This rationale makes sense to me, but I … Continue reading Real and Raw
A Carrot a Day…
My exhibition is over now and has given intriguing results. My experiment went exactly as hypothesized: the cultures in the dish listening to Raag Kirwani flourished, and the dish listening to an ultrasound bath showed very little growth (the control was somewhere in-between). Although I am deeply interested in further exploring the connections between sound … Continue reading A Carrot a Day…
Exhibition Walk-Through
I am writing this post under the assumption that you are visiting the Microbial Mood exhibition and have scanned the QR code provided in order to gain more information. However, in case you are an online visitor only, I have included the pictures and videos here. Kombucha I originally started brewing kombucha as an analog … Continue reading Exhibition Walk-Through
Antibiotics, Farms, and a Glowing Sea
Can the finding the right vibration be the key to new antibiotic production? I met again with the microbiologist, Dr. Hobbs, whom I had mentioned in a previous post who is studying sound and bacteria. I learned that he and another scientist, Dr. Murphy, are researching the effects of vibrations on antibiotic production along with … Continue reading Antibiotics, Farms, and a Glowing Sea
Microbial Mood 