How Manmade Chemicals are Altering Our Microbial World

Presented by Erica Hartmann, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Microbes are microscopic organisms that exist in single-celled form or in a colony/community of cells. Our world is composed of a variety

of physical and chemical stimulus that create conditions resulting in life or death for microbes and changes the behaviors of surviving

microbes.

As humans, we manipulate the microbial landscape through the chemicals we use in our everyday lives. For example, antibiotic

drugs and antimicrobial additives induce changes in the structures and functions of microbial communities. These chemicals favor the

proliferation of certain microbes over others which select for traits like antibiotic resistance in the human body and in the environment.

The consequences of antimicrobial chemicals are widespread.

Come and learn more about what is invisibly happening that affects your world and your life every day!

Bonus: More Café dates for the calendar!

• March 25 with Scott Colborne – Freshwater fish biologist at the Shedd Aquarium
• April 22 with Andrew Santella – the upside of procrastination
• May 27 (new date) with Sera Young and Julius Lucks –  biocultural approach to the topics of food and house-hold water insecurity