
Scientists in 18-Month Project Gather DNA Throughout Transit System to Identify Germs, Study Urban Microbiology
Aboard a No. 6 local train in Manhattan, Weill Cornell researcher Christopher Mason patiently rubbed a nylon swab back and forth along a metal handrail, collecting DNA in an effort to identify the bacteria in the New York City subway.
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February 5, 2015 11:54 PM
“They are like New Yorkers” they live in the filth of 20 million neighbors.FIFY
February 5, 2015 11:54 PM
Sort of interesting. But, it seems to me, our capacity to gather data and measure things, exceeds our understanding of what to do with the information.We can, for example, measure pathogens in our drinking water like lead or arsenic down to a few parts per million. But we don't know precisely at what levels they become harmful. Same with radioactivity. We don't know why a single peanut can kill someone with a peanut allergy, while others can scarf them down all day.So now we have additional useless knowledge of DNA in subways. Thank you, scientists!
February 5, 2015 11:52 PM
That's why I like private passenger cars. You can curate your own germ collection.
February 5, 2015 11:51 PM
I have sat next to a Tasmanian Devil in the NYC subway, or at least he acted like one.
February 5, 2015 11:49 PM
Suddenly those people wearing surgical masks while in public don't seem so strange.
February 5, 2015 11:48 PM
Why in the world are we tracking Germans in cities?!? That's racial profil...oh, never mind.
February 5, 2015 11:46 PM
Before entering the subway start spraying your can of Lysol all over the place. New Yorkers will love you for it.
February 5, 2015 11:46 PM
Maybe if we raise taxes we can solve this problem, like global warming.
February 5, 2015 11:45 PM
I think this information is good to know, as it gives a baseline and can be compared to diseases in a community. We don't know what we don't know.Too bad they don't have information on viral DNA/RNA. A mind numbing task.
February 5, 2015 11:45 PM
Science is still in it infancy. The most to be accomplished by these studies is that few students will earn their PhDs in the process, not much will be added to the total scientific field of knowledge.This was an extremely long and painful article to read with minimal of interest for the average WSJ.com reader. One would think the editors would have required the word count to be reduced.I wounder how much of this study was funded by Federal Tax dollars?
February 5, 2015 11:45 PM
I have read that people who live on farms rarely have hay fever. Growing up surrounded by germs and allergens probably helps one develop a strong immune system. Conversely, living in a relatively sterile environment is likely to cause one to have a weak and underdeveloped immune system.
February 5, 2015 11:44 PM
The next logical step for liberals is to spread the germs around.
February 5, 2015 11:44 PM
Wait'll they get a load of the humungous pus sack residing in Gracie mansion.
February 5, 2015 11:44 PM
The science is settled. We're all gonna die. Of something. Eventually.
February 5, 2015 11:44 PM
I am shocked ... imagine disease germs in the NY city subways and other public areas! Whodathunkit? Far more significant than war ...disease has shaped, shaken, and almost halted the course of mankind over the years. Vast expanses of our DNA are bits and pieces of bacterial and viral infections accumulated by the survivors over the centuries. It will be the "bugs" that will eventually take most of us, collectively and individually, off the planet. But as purportedly Jim Morrison said (if one gets wisdom out of rock personalities) - no one gets out of here alive.
February 5, 2015 11:44 PM
Well ... the fire of London ended the plague that invested the city in the 17th century, but, other than that, we have immune systems for a reason: to deal with the constant assault of microbes.If we were to get more serious about cleaning things, young kids might not develop mature immune responses to microbes. They might develop more allergies which are just manifestations of the immune system over-reacting to stuff it shouldn't over-react to.
February 5, 2015 11:44 PM
Why do I now feel like I don't want to touch anything in my office?
February 5, 2015 11:43 PM
Good Grief! I learned in 7th grade health class that there were germs on almost every surface, everywhere. If they were dangerous enough to worry about, we would all be dead already.And finding them in the subway? That can't be difficult.
February 5, 2015 11:43 PM
Well, when one observes the public, 1/2 are pigs and factor in all theseillegals among us that come from pit holes, expect more diseases.Can't imagine what their living quarters look like.Ambition & Windex or Bleach are not expensive...
February 5, 2015 11:43 PM
To calm people down, someone ought to write The Immunist Manifesto!Namely, unless your immune system is punching below its weight for some reason, you can take all these germs in stride.In fact, if there is a measure for national germ levels similar to the GDP (the domestic gross product?) the US will rank way below most countries in Asia and Africa.
February 5, 2015 11:42 PM
Aside from anthrax, none of these findings are very surprising. Furthermore, hospitals garner more pernicious bacteria than subways do. Let's talk about that.
February 5, 2015 11:42 PM
Time has changed! Twenty years ago many Europeans thought that the typical American's anxiety about germs was a bit exaggerated. It was enough to show microscopic blow-ups of door handles, bank notes and many other things to make people aware. If you want to avoid unpleasant surprises, the rule is simple. Unless you get a chance to wash hands before, eat even finger food with a fork and a knife. The sad reality is that apparently in today's world there are more vicious germs and we are less immune to them than in the past.
February 5, 2015 11:41 PM
Adrian Monk would need sedation.
February 5, 2015 11:41 PM
This is like an ad for Uber.
February 5, 2015 11:41 PM
The list is rather extensive: HIV/AIDS, various forms of hepatitis, the complex of diseases often known as Gay Bowel Syndrome, all of the common STDs [as syphilis, mainly reported in gays] only more frequent, etc. I'm sure these are involved in the reduced gay lifespan as I and my colleagues have documented for San Francisco and Dr. Frisch documented in Denmark [the gay median age of death appears to currently locate around the early 60s, married or not, while for married straights the median age of death locates in the mid-80s].
February 5, 2015 11:40 PM
There are more bacteria in us and on us already to a power of ten, then there are cells that constitute us from the fertilized egg. Not to mention the world around us. The accurate question is who is colonizing who? We essentially evolved within a glob of so called germs. The immune system is not to eliminate germs but to coexist with them.
February 5, 2015 11:40 PM
Great research Cornell...GO BIG RED!!!!
February 5, 2015 11:39 PM
From this we conclude the average New Yorker washes his hands once every 11 days.
February 5, 2015 11:39 PM
Given the many diseases associated with gay sex, it would be interesting to see how the mix of microbes in gay bars and gay meeting places compares to the mix in public spaces, transportation systems, churches, theaters, and pizza-joints.
February 5, 2015 11:39 PM
If you want to find the real, life-threatening germs in the city, then try the 86th street station - the germs come from Gracie mansionWear gloves when venturing underground
February 5, 2015 11:39 PM
Another good reason not to go or live in NYC besides high taxes!!!
February 5, 2015 11:38 PM
Interesting...but one of the most bacteria/disease laden places anywhere is the gasoline pump handle....
February 5, 2015 11:38 PM
"he has found germs that can cause bubonic plague uptown, meningitis in midtown, stomach trouble"kind of like . . . nuclear war, anthrax and hangnail.Couldn't resist.
February 5, 2015 11:38 PM
The project must have been sponsored by Purell
February 5, 2015 11:38 PM
So just how much money did we spend to conclude the subway is dirty? Smells like a bunch of political microbes digesting tax dollars and spreading the make work socialist disease. Oh, I forgot, it is science and knowing (better yet - controlling) is good.
February 5, 2015 11:38 PM
Ah, the joys of what it must be like living in overpopulated, ghetto-like, urban concentration camps. Because, as will be parroted ad infinitum, urban life is so superior to everything else. Enjoy.
February 5, 2015 11:37 PM
This article “expands” the way I think about big cities.I often refer to NYC, DC, & Chicago as America’s “cesspools”. I am thinking about prevalent corruption in politics & big business when I say it. 'Fat cats’ hang out here & line their own pockets with profits produced by underpaid ‘slave labor’ in a country where ALL people are allegedly “free”.I see stark differences between society’s haves & have not’s in these cities. I see homeless living on benches, on street corners. I see ‘fat cats’ living in ivory or gold towers. In these cities, I see greatest evidence of a deteriorated America.This article just adds to the ways I think about cesspool cities. It expands my thoughts to actual health hazards that exist for all who live here, & who use public transportation.I think there are MANY reasons Americans should evacuate cesspool cities, to get away from the many forms of filth that pervade them, to find places where they can live “cleaner” lives.
February 5, 2015 11:37 PM
This is all interesting, but what do we do with this information? We find cheese-and rodent-related related bacteria on the turnstiles at the 72nd Street station and we do what exactly? Install hand sanitizers? Clearly the masses are not being harmed by the bacteria.
February 5, 2015 11:36 PM
There are over 10x more bacteria than our own genomic cells. Our immune system is nothing, sine quo non, without our biome and virome.Even the air we breath is the ancient and present day interplay of the planet's biome and virome we have to thank.These scientists are at the edge of a frontier of knowledge that will touch us all, increasingly in time. I marvel at their recent discoveries as explained, it was in plain view all along. Micriobioilogists rock!
February 5, 2015 11:36 PM
Time to wear the full body condom when on the NY subway.
February 5, 2015 11:36 PM
Wear gloves and cover your mouth when you sneeze.
February 5, 2015 11:36 PM
The research always starts off benign.... then comes the twist and then finally "control".
February 5, 2015 11:35 PM
There is a reason that NYC is called the "hell hole of the world."
February 5, 2015 11:35 PM
No kidding. It's a city. When you take a 30 square mile island and mash in enough people to fill the average U.S. state, it's going to be germy
February 5, 2015 11:34 PM
My group believes that ‘real life’ is more informative than ‘what people say.’ We compiled obituaries with unstinting care and reported what we found. Frisch dissed our compilations in the same manner as you. But when he examined 6.5 million persons followed for up to three decades (1982-2011) he found the age of death of married gays & lesbians very close to what we had reported, with the same ~15-20 year deficit in longevity. We are just wrapping up a 7 country study of contemporary child sexual abuse and have found that as indexed by Google News about half of US molestations are by the homosexually-inclined; in China – which is far less supportive of homosexuality – they accounted for 5%, in Russia about a quarter, and in the UK about three-quarters. Ideology often blinds to reality, even demands investigation be censored, but truth has a way of embarrassing it.
February 5, 2015 11:34 PM
Sounds like NYC is the ultimate destination for building natural immunity.
February 5, 2015 11:34 PM
The same stuff could probably be found on most escalator handrails, shopping cart handles, shop and restaurant door pulls, credit card machines and money; in fact on anything that has the potential for being touched by lots of people. The best you can do is to avoid placing bare hands and fingers on those places as much as you can, and if you do, don’t for God sake touch around your face. Finally, wash hands as often as possible and have a packet of disinfectant wipes in your car. Finally, always use wipes placed by shopping carts as well.
February 5, 2015 11:33 PM
That settles it: I'm going full bore Howard Hughes. The tipping point was that high level of cucumber bacteria.
February 5, 2015 11:33 PM
Wash your hands after taking the subway and use UV-Aid beforehand and you'll be safe from surface and airborne germs.
February 5, 2015 11:32 PM
An easy way to avoid this would be just those alcohol gel sprays.
February 5, 2015 11:32 PM
The whole city of New York is one big bactria pathogen.
February 5, 2015 11:32 PM
........and this information is worth $1 million?
February 5, 2015 11:32 PM
The real message is only travel in the clean taxis.
February 5, 2015 11:32 PM
Data is not useless. Data is simply data until it supports or refutes a hypothesis.Imagination and understanding allow the knowledgeable to recognize patterns and relationships in data.Statistics allow us to review the meaning of data. Data is not useless.