Seems Janet has been a bit under the weather...and has taken to haiku to describe her ailments. I think this should be the new format for journal case reports.
In other news, I'm heading off to my son's preschool class later this morning to give a talk on germs and hand-washing (and a bit about being a scientist in general, since they're discussing careers and community helpers this month), so blogging will be light today. Tomorrow I'm giving a talk out of town in the evening that I still have to polish a bit, but I have a few things in the hopper to keep you busy until I'm back up to speed on Wednesday.
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Brian's got a great post about Sarah Boxer's editorial in the NY Review of Books the other day, using this quote as a jump off point:
Bloggers are golden when they're at the bottom of the heap, kicking up. Give them a salary, a book contract, or a press credential, though, and it just isn't the…
I see he already mentioned this while I was out of town, but I just ran across it: Squid Soap:
More on this and handwashing in general below the fold...
SquidSoap is a fun soap dispenser designed for teaching children healthy hand washing habits.
SquidSoap works by applying a small ink mark on…
I see Janet has a post series going on family + academic career. (Part 1; Part 2). I've written a bit on my own experience at the old blog (and I do mean "a bit;" it's much more of a Cliff notes version of events than Janet's), so I'm re-posting it here for another view from the trenches, so to…
As I mentioned, I spent yesterday morning talking microbiology to a bunch of 3, 4, and 5 year olds in my son's preschool class. It was fun, actually--I took along a prepared slide to show them some bacteria under the microscope, and then took a scraping from my son's tongue and Gram-stained it to…
I'm a scientist, and I don't wash my hands when I come in from playing in the dirt.
BTW, I don't recall when was the last time I had a cold, or for that matter being sick.
I ate dirt, picked my nose and ate it, never washed my hands, and I turned out very healty: notably without any allergies. I think there's a decent argument to be made that giving your immune system a workout (as long as its within normal bacterial threat levels) is good for you.
Of course, I also swallowed my toothpaste as a child, and now my bones are mottled with flouride stains. :)
Oh, I agree--and I emphasized that there are "good" and "bad" bacteria, too. But for preschool age kids, I think it's most important to teach them good hygiene and handwashing habits, since they're germ spreading machines in any case. It's a tough balance to strike between teaching them to stay clean in order to minimize disease transmission in this population, but not to freak them out about germs.