Sure the Internets are full of all sorts of distractions (Awkward Family Photos, anyone?)

But there are some interesting, thought-provoking gems in there too. Recently, I’ve noticed a number of cool news stories and blog posts relevant to our quest to understand the microbial wild life of our homes (and bodies).

We usually tweet about these sorts of things that catch our eye, but from time to time I’ll take a little space here on the blog to pull together a reading list for y’all.

As Rob Dunn is fond of saying, “We know so little.” There is so much that remains to be discovered about the diversity of life on Earth, particularly when it comes to microbes: those living on us (the human microbiome) and quite possibly on every surface of the planet (the Earth microbiome).

Here’s a few things about the wide world of microbes that caught my attention this week:

  • Cosmic Log: Scientists map the world’s microbesAlan Boylegives a nice run-down of scientists’ quest to map and quantify the Earth’s microbiome, reporting from the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Vancouver, Canada, last week.

    Proctor & Gamble's next big product? © Kalliopi Monoyios

  • What comes after antibiotics? Antibiotics seem to be everywhere – in our hand-soap, fed to farm animals destined for our dinner plates, on our doctor’s prescription pads. The overuse (and sometimes  inappropriate use) of antibiotics has led growing numbers of disease-causing bacteria down the path of antibiotic resistance. And unfortunately, it looks like there aren’t many new antibiotic wonder drugs in the development pipeline. John Rennie explores what therapeutic options we might have in the future, including how we might be able to manipulate good microbes to fight the bad.

What interesting things have you read lately relevant to the wild life of your every day life? Don’t be shy! Share stories that pique your interest – via Twitter, Facebook, and the blog’s comment section (it’s been awfully quiet there so far – hint, hint).