CULTURE AND MICROBIOLOGICAL CULTURES

Let me welcome the November issue of Microbiology Today, the quarterly magazine of the Microbiology Society, which is devoted to ‘Microbiology in Popular Culture’.

The magazine hosts five pleasant articles and a commentary from the editorial team.  Articles range from the interesting and helpful Genome editing and the cultural imagination, which discusses the importance of the choice of words in science popularization reporting the main findings of a recent project carried out by Genetic Alliance UK and the Progress Educational Trust (Basic Understanding of Genome Editing), to Killer microbes in movies, a piece that – as promised by the title - deals with killer microbe doomsday scenarios in movies. Even lighter articles as this one, offer interesting points, which would deserve to be further elaborated. For instance, Andrew M. Burns and David Bhella ask themselves and to the reader why viruses are preferred to bacteria to play the villain role in “films based on mass deaths from infectious disease”. Their answer is thought provoking, because – they argue – virus are simpler. E.A.Poe, who created one of his most fascinating short stories, The Purloined Letter, around the idea of simplicity, and always praised simplicity, would have not provided a different answer; to human nothing is as beautiful and disturbing as simplicity. Other articles deal with forensic microbiology in popular culture, Managing the myths – the CSI effect in forensic science, with fungal diseases and video games, Not such a fungi – fungal disease and the end of the world as we know it?, with spatial exploration and germs, Terra Firma II: terraforming Earth’s sequel. Overall, the magazine is quite enjoyable and educational, notably for those who are involved in microbiology and communication. “Popular culture – notes Amy Chambers in her final comment - can subtly and powerfully communicate ideas and stories about science in ways that other methods cannot. A science-based movie is more likely to inspire rather than (re)educate someone about science”.

Microbiology Today should be read in parallel with another pleasant piece, published on Nov 30 by Forbes and authored by Kavin Senapathy. The article is devoted to “The 5 Most Laughable Non-GMO Project Verified Products”. Kavin entertainingly describes some of the oddest products advertised as GMO free in the U.S. market. They include a brand of cat litter, a marque of “organic” vodka, various homeopathic medications and even HimalaSalt – “the purest salt on earth created 250 million years ago during a time of pristine environmental integrity”. If it is difficult to imagine how salt could be ever genetically modified, and it is also comical to see that homeopathic products, whose ingredients are undetectable, can be promoted as GMO free, yet the funniest case is definitely the cat litter producer, which proudly declares in its website “our litter is made out of 100% U.S. sourced grass, certified biodegradable, no chemicals, fragrances, perfumes or clay, non GMO project verified”. 

Why is it instructive reading this article in parallel with the issue of Microbiology Today? Because comparing the two, it becomes at once clear how science education and communication are hardly a matter of “passing down” information, and they are instead a complex and nuanced exercise of human communication, in which emotions, imagination, desires and fears, are often more important than evidence and data. Dr House, who politely explains to a mother why she should vaccinate her child, is worth hundreds scientific conferences, not to mention many public health campaigns.

In his introduction to the Microbiology Today issue, Neil Gow, president of the Microbiology Society, jokes with the twofold sense of the word “culture”, human culture and microbiological culture(s). He is righter than he probably imagines. “Culture” comes from Latin “cultura, which originally meant agriculture and then, metaphorically, also education, care, and so. Fascinatingly enough, the Latin word cultura was the future participle of the verb còlere, to farm, to cultivate. Culture is thus our future,  it is -so to speak – the fruit of our land, and “by their fruit you will recognize them”(Matthew 7:16)

(from http://riskcommunication.rtexpert.com/#/)