Hi there. What are your first thoughts when I mention the word climate change? Do you agree with it or do you step outside your front door and you think to yourself spring and summer, it's not just as pleasant as when you were perhaps a child? Well, these extreme weather events, think of bush fires or extreme water events, this encapsulates the concept of climate change, and we all know the famous Swedish environmental climate activist, Greta Thunberg, presented her famous series of speeches in 2018 and '19 talking about the dire impact of climate change if we don't do something about it.

So that brings me to what we're going to be talking about in this week's live stream, and this is some of the impacts of extreme weather events that can affect our homes and cause damage in particular to timber and timber incorporated into not only new building construction but all sorts of different environments where timber is used. The jumping-off point for me deciding to talk about this week is t...

Hello. When you go to sleep at night and your head hits the pillow, do you find it easy to go to sleep? Maybe you wake up a little bit too often, or maybe you have snoring. If this happens to you or a loved one, today's show, I'm going to go through the six factors that could help improve your night's sleep. Now to put this in context, anyone who's suffered any form of insomnia, you know that it happens to everyone at some point in their lives.

Famous people who've been insomniacs include Bill Clinton. He used to brag that he didn't need that much sleep until he had a heart attack. Roseanne Barr, the famous comedian and actress. She even had her own show. She was addicted to sleeping pills and she blamed them when she Tweeted out a racist remark. Similarly, we all know about Michael Jackson and his untimely death due to the fact that he had trouble sleeping, and the list goes on and on.

Now, why am I telling you this? Well, a fascinating publication was just published in early 2020, ...

Hi, there. My name is Cameron Jones, and I'm an environmental microbiologist. And on this week's live stream, we're going to be talking about mould odour. I'm going to be talking to you about smells, particularly decaying smells, especially after water damage. And I want to focus on the question, can we trust our sense of smell, and how important is it when we discover that there might be a funky mould smell in our home, or office, or car. And that is the topic of this week's live stream.

And to kick it off, I want to focus on the well-known model and actress, Megan Fox, who is currently in a legal dispute with a range of different people regarding the mould contamination that she alleges pervades her home. And I want to use this as the springboard for talking about this central question, can we trust our sense of smell to protect us from danger? And I want you to just think about smell for a little bit. Over summer, for example, you might think of coconuts and think of sun or sand. I...

After a tiresome day, there is nothing better than crawling into bed and laying your head down onto a soft, comforting pillow. But before you drift off into the sweetest of dreams, take a moment to think about the hidden dangers lurking within your pillow. It could turn out to be your worst nightmare...

A 2006 study looked into the fungi living in pillows, and they discovered that the most common three fungi were:​ Aspergillus fumigatus​, A​ureobasidium pullulans​ and a yeast, called Rhodotorula.​ What’s frightening is that ​Aspergillus fumigatus​, the most common fungus found in the pillows, is known to have implications for patients who have respiratory disease, especially those individuals suffering from asthma and sinusitis.

The study went further, discovering that fungi were more prolific in synthetic fibres than natural ones. Over the past 30 years, our bedding buying habits have changed from feather and flock pillows, sheets and blankets to mainly polyester pillows and quilts....

Breakthrough research out this past week shows that the gut mycobiome has a big influence on brain function. Researchers have discovered that the Ketogenic diet can be used to manipulate the gut microflora and that certain fungi are linked with mild cognitive impairment. The Keto diet was compared against participants who ate a diet endorsed by the American Heart Association diet.

YouTube Link:

https://youtu.be/UTbNy_XFxDA

REFERENCES:

Nagpal, R., Neth, B., Wang, S., Mishra, S., Craft, S., & Yadav, H. (2020). Gut mycobiome and its interaction with diet, gut bacteria and alzheimer's disease markers in subjects with mild cognitive impairment: A pilot study. Ebiomedicine, 59, 102950. doi: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2020.102950

Ketogenic diet. Healthdirect.gov.au. https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/ketogenic-diet. Published 2020. Accessed September 3, 2020.

The COVID pandemic has shone a lens on the issue of mechanical ventilators.  No one wants to get that sick that ventilation is required just to have a chance at staying alive. In turn, what if there was a way to predict who would have a severe lung disease response or go on to suffer from acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and who wouldn't?  Well, some clever scientists have just discovered why some people show a high level of inflammation and seem to go on and suffer from ARDS.  In this Livestream, I'm going to review this exciting breakthrough recently presented by the European Respiratory Society this week on Monday. Using next-generation sequencing, they were able to work out that the diversity of the lung fungal microflora (the mycobiome) predicted not only inflammation but detected the risk for which groups of people would have more severe lung disease.  I'll even tell you the biomarker they tracked.  So, what does this mean for you...well, if you have a predisposition to...

Hello there. My name is Dr. Cameron Jones and I'm an environmental microbiologist. And in this week's live stream, I'm going to be covering some research highlights, focusing on the longterm implications of SARS CoV-2 virus. Now, that's right. No one wants to get the virus. No one wants to be tested and find out that they're positive, but we're going to be focusing on the longterm implications of this illness. And, in fact, those people are starting to call themselves long haulers. And there are some trending hashtags in social media, and I thought I would dive into the research literature and bring you back some of the key points of this research because it could happen to you and we do need to be aware of all of this.

So does COVID-19 have longterm impact? Well, we're still learning all about the implications of this illness and that's the very problem. We don't know what's going to happen in the long term. Obviously, the clinical response is becoming better understood, but we know ...

Good afternoon. My name's Dr. Cameron Jones and I'm an environmental microbiologist. And this week on the live stream, I had some really fascinating research that I want to bring to your attention. And it is focusing on another type of problem that has a strong microbiological underpinning. And it is particularly important because we're going to be focusing on not just infections and asthma-related respiratory problems caused by fungi, but we're going to take a look at how these are possibly linked to a range of different brain diseases or brain disorders. And so the topic of today's live stream is how a common anti-fungal drug could help stop brain diseases.

To put this in context, I want to share a bit of a personal story with you because many years ago, when I was doing some postgraduate training in industrial microbiology, one of my lecturers was Warren Baker. And I want to tell you this personal story because it sets in context why I'm bringing you this live stream and why this h...

Good afternoon. My name's Dr. Cameron Jones and I'm an environmental microbiologist. This week I'm going to bring you a very exciting show on the topic of black mould, the infamous Stachybotrys. If you have ever considered that your home or property could be contaminated with mould, you've probably looked up online and you've probably found page after page referring to something called black mould or Stachybotrys chartarum. This is the most infamous black mould. It's not as common as people think, but there has been an increasing amount of research done. I'm going to be taking you through this week some of the key publications as well as one which is just come out in the research literature, which is talking about a patient who presented to the medical clinic with a sinusitis infection. It was typed out to be Stachybotrys.

In any case, we're going to get into this publication and what this means to you, but I want to firstly overview you on what we're going to be talking about today...

Hello there, my name's Dr. Cameron Jones from Biological Health Services. Thanks for joining me on another live stream. And we are continuing our investigation into various different aspects of the SARS-CoV-2 virus pandemic. And this week, one of the things that I want to get into is this issue of face masks. It seems to be a topic on everyone's lips, certainly.

And certainly, if you're in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, face masks are mandatory now when we go out into the public. And there are a number of reasons for that. Now, there's been a lot that has been discussed in the mainstream media and in social media. I wanted to bring a different set of pieces of information to the table this week as it were.

And the reason for that is that there is appearing to be really, in a sense, a bit of confusion about whether face masks are good or aren't good, whether or not there will or won't be fines. Certainly, in my own neighborhood, I'm seeing a lot of compliance with face mask-wearing. ...