The magazine of the Society for Applied Microbiology ■ March 2004 ■ Vol 5 No 1 ISSN 1479-2699 The good, the bad and the ugly Clostridium botulinum neurotoxins ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: ■ Bioterrorism ■ Design-a-bug competition winners ■ Immunomagnetic separation ■ Book now for the 2004 Summer conference in Cork! excellence in microbiology W ! gy e lo are io th crob e friendly face of mi Don Whitley Scientific is a leading supplier of innovative equipment and contract & consultancy services for microbiologists worldwide. If you work in clinical, pharmaceutical, research or industrial microbiology, please phone one of the friendly faces in our technical sales team on: +44 (0)1274 595728 www.dwscientific.co.uk The magazine of the Society for Applied Microbiology ■ March 2004 ■ Vol 5 No 1 ISSN 1479-2699 REGULARS MEETINGS FEATURES Microbiologist Vol 5 No.1 04Editorial 16 sfam 06Design-a-bug March 2004 The magic of the Summer Competition winners ISSN 1479-2699 invisible world of microbes Conference Cover Art: ‘Biohazard’ - Stephen 2004 Pollard, Pollard Creativity 05 Contact Dairy & Food Publisher: Society for Full contact Microbiology: Applied Microbiology. information for all challenges and Contact: Lynne Boshier, Committee members opportunities Office and Events Manager Telephone: 01234 326661 26 Cover story Facsimile: 01234 326678 07 Micro break Break the code to Editor: Anthony Hilton reveal the hidden [email protected] message! Editorial Assistant: Anouche Newman [email protected] 08President’s column Contributions: These are always welcome and should be addressed to the Editor 10 Membership at: [email protected] Matters Advertising: Contact: Lynne Boshier, 11 New Public Office and Events Manager Affairs Telephone: 01234 326661 [email protected] Executive Art and Design & layout: 12 Obituary Pollard Creativity 23 Joint Professor E O Morris Production and printing: sfam/ASM Pollard Creativity. 13 Lifetime meeting All technical questions should be addressed to: achievement Bacterial resistance [email protected] award for Don to antibiotics and Tel: 01933 665617 Whitley disinfectants © Society for Applied 24 Joint Microbiology 2003 38 January 32 Bioterrorism Material published in Meeting sfam/CIEH The use of infectious Microbiologist may not be reproduced, stored in a Report meeting biological agents retrieval system, or Food Contamination transmitted in any form 34 Is there a without the prior permission 42 Students risks associated with of the Society. into Work microorganisms and bug on pests Society for Applied board? Microbiology, The Blore 43 President’s Immunomagnetic Tower, The Harpur Centre, Fund The editor is always looking separation Bedford MK40 1TQ, UK for enthusiastic writers who Reports wish to contribute articles to 36 Education in Tel: +44 (0)1234 326661 Microbiologist on their Fax: +44 (0)1234 326678 47 Books chosen microbiological Ethiopia email: [email protected] subject. Email: The third of Jenny www.sfam.org.uk 50 About SfAM [email protected] Search’s reports Editorial Microbiologist Vol 5 No.1 Invisible world March 2004 Contact the Editor: OR MICROBIOLOGISTS, [email protected] familiar with the world invisible to the naked eye, there can be Microbiologist copy F Dates: contributors please little more gratifying than note that the final copy witnessing the expression on a lay- dates in 2004/2005 will be: person’s face when they observe microorganisms for the first time; Vol 5 No.2 June 2004 whether peering down a microscope or Friday 12 March 2004 viewing an electron micrograph as part of a presentation their wonderment is Vol 5 No.3 Sept 2004 obvious. This reaction has become Friday 9 July 2004 increasingly apparent to me during University open days when students and Vol 5 No.4 Dec 2004 Friday 17 September 2004 their parents have the opportunity to see what higher education and life at Vol 6 No.1 March 2005 university is all about. During the sessions Friday 17 December 2004 on microbiology I look to the assembled privilege of the few. (Having said that, I company for their reaction when I show have seen ‘microscopes’ for sale in a local How to submit material micrographs of various microorganisms, children’s toy store for only £10.99! I’ve Please submit all articles, and sure enough their expressions betray no idea if they work but they have to be reports, meetings their amazement. at least as powerful as Leeuwenhoek’s notifications, letters etc., as I mused over this phenomenon for microscopes that offered 150 x plain text (*.txt) or rich text some time as it suggests that files (*.rtf). Please submit magnification at best!). The recent SfAM all images as original until that epiphany they had design-a-bug competition was a wonderful photographic prints or accepted, almost without insight into the minds of young children transparencies rather than question, that this ‘invisible’ who have obviously heard of scanned images and these world existed. Maybe we just microorganisms but almost certainly will be processed by us and live in a society where never seen them. We had such a large returned to you promptly. scientific ‘faith’ is widely response from a few schools, obviously If your images are only in accepted, or, potentially committed to communicating digital format please make more likely, we just don’t microbiology, that the Society has sure they are supplied at a bother to think about or responded by providing these enthusiastic resolution of 300dpi (dots question issues that are or pixels per inch at a size teachers with the ‘window’ their students of not less than 100mm (4 not immediately obvious need to nurture their interest in inches) square. to us? It makes me microbiology. The only downside is sadly, wonder how Antony van in the years to come, the amazement on Advertisers: if you wish to Leeuwenhoek was people’s faces may not be so readily advertise in Microbiologist received by the lay- revealed when they observe you should contact the people of 1683 when microorganisms but let’s hope it is just Society Office in the first word first got out of his because they’ve seen it all before. instance. Advertising rates writings to the Royal Society about and Guidelines on how to observations on the plaque between his submit advertisements are teeth, “a little white matter, which is as given on the website and thick as if ‘twere batter.” are also obtainable by Leeuwenhoek emailing the editor at: reported, “I then most always saw, with [email protected] great wonder, that in the said matter there were many very little living Website: the society animalcules, very prettily a-moving.” I website is a timely source imagine many at the time thought him of up-to-date information mad and few, if any, blindly accepted his on all Society matters and remarkable observations. maintains a comprehensive Leeuwenhoek’s window on this archive of articles and invisible world was a simple microscope reports on a variety of microbiological topics. that he skilfully crafted with a small lens in a brass mount. Microscopes have www.sfam.org.uk obviously developed somewhat since then, however they still remain largely the 04 March 2004 www.sfam.org.uk Contact point COMMITTEE MEMBERS 2003 - 2004 HON PRESIDENT: Dr Peter Silley Don Whitley Scientific Limited, 14 Otley Road, Shipley, West Yorks BD17 7SE Interest Groups [email protected] HON GENERAL SECRETARY: Dr Margaret Patterson Agriculture and Food Science Centre, Newforge Lane, Belfast BT9 5PX Hon Meetings Secretary: [email protected] Mrs Margaret Harrison, Oxoid Ltd, HON MEETINGS SECRETARY: Mrs Margaret Harrison Wade Road, Basingstoke RG24 8PW G&M Procter Ltd, Arran Place, North Muirton Industrial Estate, Perth, Scotland. 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