Intriguing news from the Scientific American, of all places:

“(A) new genetic census of some air samples from Austin and San Antonio, Tex., finds that as many as 2,000 different kinds of microbes may be present in the air we breathe on any given day.

Microbial ecologist Gary Andersen of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and his colleagues collected air samples in the two Texas cities over a period of 17 weeks, starting in 2003… In the air samples, the researchers uncovered at least 1,800 different types of microbes, including those such as the diarrhea-causing Arcobacter and ulcer-inducing Heliobacter genera that can be dangerous to human health.”

Good God. Still, I’m sure the chamber of commerce can flip this into a net plus. How long until we see tees and stickers emblazoned with “Austin: Live Microbial Capital of the World?”

This article appears in December 15 • 2006.

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