Blog Assignment 1

Microbes Hitch a Ride on the Subway

       A Microbiologist from Colorado University, Norman Pace, has studied various types of microbes in all sorts of different places. He recently did a study of what kind of microbes live in the subways in New York. It was an experiment to see what people were breathing in the subway compared to what we breathe above ground. He performed these tests to see “if any of its invisible critters are cause for worry.”

Pace did various tests in multiple stations including Times Square, Grand Central, Union Square, Chambers Street, Bowling Green, and the IRT station. The tests that were conducted involved two samples of air about the volume of a persons breathe. Like I stated before, they were comparing the air below ground to air above ground. So they also sampled the air above.

The results were shocking. In the subway samples, each “contained almost one million bacteria” but tended to be the outdoor air. “Fungus loads are somewhat higher, but there’s also a lot of rotting wood, so that’s not so surprising”, Pace said. Five percent of the bacteria came from human skin. 

It was concluded that the air in the station had no cause for alarm or fear. Its just about the same air we breathe in any crowded outdoor space.

“We saw nothing unusual, certainly nothing threatening. At least, no more threatening than the people standing next to you on the platform.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/28/science/microbes-hitch-a-ride-on-the-subway.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1390503744-gojqfkrXQVQW8aLOy4Sw6Q&_r=0