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Perkins+Will have released a white paper that recommends avoiding including antimicrobial products in buildings. “Antimicrobial building products marketed as ‘healthy’ or beneficial to human health contain ingredients that may have adverse environmental or human health impacts, and... View full entry
Bed bugs have developed a resistance to neonicotinoids, a group of the most widely used insecticides, according to a new study published in the Journal of Medical Entomology.
[...]
The newly found resistance to neonics has real implications for people who need to control the pest... Neonics are the most commonly used insecticide to fight the already elusive and resilient bed bugs, and if they no longer work, bed bugs will continue to thrive despite exterminators’ efforts.
— the Guardian
Related:Bed Bugs Found on N Train in NYArchitecture of the Anthropocene, Pt. 2: Haunted Houses, Living Buildings, and Other Horror StoriesThe viral "metropolises" of your skin View full entry
In the microbial metropolises that thrive in and on the human body, underground networks of viruses loom large. A closer look at human skin has found that it's teeming with viruses, most of which don't target us but infect the microbes that live there.
Almost 95 percent of those skin-dwelling virus communities are unclassified...Those unknown viruses may prune, manipulate, and hide out in the skin’s bacterial communities, which in turn can make the difference between human health and disease...
— Ars Technica
Further reading: Architecture of the Anthropocene, Pt. 2: Haunted Houses, Living Buildings, and Other Horror StoriesBetween Sampling and Dowsing: Field Notes from GRNASFCKStudy finds antibacterial soap no more effective than regular soapEven bacteria are architectsCities Of The Future, Built By... View full entry
Scientists in Korea have discovered that using antibacterial soap when hand-washing is no more effective than using plain soap, according to a paper published today in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy... The study examined the effect of triclosan...on bacteria in two ways. The first was to examine the bactericidal effects of triclosan in soaps against all 20 strains, and the second compared the ability of antibacterial and non-antibacterial soap to remove bacteria from human hands... — Science Daily
For related Archinect articles:Between Sampling and Dowsing: Field Notes from GRNASFCKArchitecture of the Anthropocene, Pt. 2: Haunted Houses, Living Buildings, and Other Horror StoriesEven bacteria are architects View full entry