Designing for microscopic life in the great indoors

Our homes, offices and even gadgets are teeming with microbial life, but is it the kind we want? Ecologist Jessica Green tells Amy Maxmen why it's time for designers and architects to consider the ecosystems that thrive in and on their creations

You began your career as a civil engineer. How did you come to study microbes?
When training as an engineer, I was applying fractal mathematics to model patterns of plant diversity. I was trying to answer questions in conservation biology, like "If you chop down a portion of the rainforest, how many species do you expect to lose"?

In 2001, a researcher in Australia asked if he could use these mathematical theories to make predictions about microbes in soil cores, and I ended up collaborating with his team. Microbes have remained interesting to me ever since. Even though they make up the majority of the tree of life, ...

To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content.

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/2ee50486/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Carticle0Cmg21929250A0B40A0A0Edesigning0Efor0Emicroscopic0Elife0Ein0Ethe0Egreat0Eindoors0Bhtml0Dcmpid0FRSS0QNSNS0Q20A120EGLOBAL0Qonline0Enews/story01.htm

brody jenner brody jenner maurice sendak E3 Schedule Gamespot rafael nadal cicely tyson