Micropod

Micropod's Nancy Mendoza grabs a few minutes with two of the speakers at the SfAM Winter Meeting at the Royal Society in London. First, Professor James Oliver and his colleague, Dr Craig Baker-Austin, explain the growing threat from Vibrio vulnificus, which is found in oysters. Then Dr Frances Lucy explains how bottom feeding organisms are protecting our recreational waters.

On the evening of 30 June 2014, in Brighton, the SfAM Summer Conference began with the annual Journal of Applied Microbiology Annual Lecture, chaired by SfAM President, Professor Martin Adams. Professor George Macfarlane speaks on the topic of 'bacterial metabolism in the large intestine and its consequences for the host'.

The winners of the latest SfAM Communication Award talk to us about what motivates them to use the media as a vehicle for communicating science. Adam Rutherford - a scientist turned broadcaster - gets out of bed in the morning for the 'wow' factor in science stories he discovers. Ron Cutler does research in infection control and feels passionately that media appearances give him a priceless opportunity to tell people about the importance of hygiene and cleanliness.

Micropod's Nancy Mendoza grabs a few minutes with two of the speakers at the SfAM Spring Meeting in Sheffield. Judith Tanner tells us why bed jackets, wooly socks, and clean showers are important elements of the fight against surgical site infections. And Marcel Jaspars has been looking for new compounds, including antibiotics, in some very unusual places...

Following the recent resurgence of measles in South Wales, Micropod's Nancy Mendoza unpacks the MMR vaccine debacle that has been blamed for this latest outbreak. She speaks to John Illman, a health journalist who was writing for the national daily papers at the time; and Michael Fitzpatrick, a GP and parent of an autistic son who put his head above the parapet to counter Andrew Wakefield's claims of a link between the triple vaccine and autism. Look out for a special edition of Microbiologist on microbiology in the media, which is out on 2 December (www.sfam.org.uk/microbiologist). The edition includes a feature by John Illman, on MMR.

The publishing landscape is changing. Traditionally, institutions have paid subscription fees to journals so that their employees can access the latest research. But this system doesn't work for everyone and many publications are moving to an open access model. In this podcast, the Society for Applied Microbiology's Phil Wheat, Deborah Kahn from BioMedCentral, and Jennifer McLennan at eLife discuss what this means for the scientific community.

A brand new respiratory virus is circulating in the Middle East and of 80 cases, 44 people have died. MERS-CoV, as it has become known, is a coronavirus with close relatives in bats. In this podcast, experts speaking at a recent Public Health England conference talk about what we know so far and the important questions still to answer. We hear from John Watson, head of respiratory diseases at Public Health England; Brian McCloskey, director of global health at Public Health England; Monica Galiano, head of genomic sequencing at Public Health England's Virus Reference Department; and Ab Osterhaus, head of the Virology Department at the Erasmus Medical Centre in the Netherlands.

We talk science policy with the Director of the Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE), and soon-to-be Chief Executive of the British Science Association, Imran Khan. Then we chat to the Head of Communications at the Wellcome Trust and author of 'Geek Manifesto', Mark Henderson.

Scientists and science communicators have joined forces to make a beautiful calendar which showcases real women (and men) doing great science. The money raised will make sure girls continue to achieve great things in STEM subjects. We went to the launch party and spoke to some of the team, including Director Heather Williams and TV presenter Gareth Jones. Science - it's for everyone!

The winner's of the 2012 SfAM Communication Award talk to us about the novel ways in which they engage with diverse audiences on a huge variety of topics, especially microbiology. Artist Anna Dumitriu explains how she's made a 'MRSA quilt' which members of the public can add to while they chat with her about infectious disease. PhD student Vicky Young describes her sparkly uterus through which sperm race. She uses this as a hook to discuss endometriosis with people at a music festival.

This month's Micropod looks at the possibility of microbial life in space. Dr Louisa Preston talks about extremophiles (or extreme-lovers as she calls them) which live in hostile environments on earth. These places are extremely hot, acidic, cold, alkaline and can be used as potential analogues for other-worldly environments. Then we hear from BBC Horizon star, Dr Lewis Dartnell, who chats about the Mars Curiosity Rover that's due to land on the red planet on 6 August 2012. He tells us about his use of Raman spectroscopy to look for organic molecules and microbes, as well as the ExoMars rover that will fly this instrument to Mars. Look out for more on Astrobiology in the September issue of Microbiologist.

Professor Anne Glover is the Chief Science Advisor to the President of the EC and in this interview she discusses science in Europe, following her passions and the role of communication in science policy. Delegates at the SfAM Spring Meeting tell us about their highlights of the day and we hear a brilliant microbiological joke!

This month's podcast features an interview with the brilliant comedian Robin Ince who talks about science in comedy, his fascination with the world around us, microbiology and mimophants. We were lucky enough to grab a few minutes with him just before one of his 'Uncaged Monkeys' shows in Manchester at the end of last year.