Micropod Society for Applied Microbiology

Micropod's Nancy Mendoza grabs a few minutes with two of the speakers at the SfAM Winter Meeting at the Royal Society in London. First, Professor James Oliver and his colleague, Dr Craig Baker-Austin, explain the growing threat from Vibrio vulnificus, which is found in oysters. Then Dr Frances Lucy explains how bottom feeding organisms are protecting our recreational waters.

On the evening of 30 June 2014, in Brighton, the SfAM Summer Conference began with the annual Journal of Applied Microbiology Annual Lecture, chaired by SfAM President, Professor Martin Adams.

Professor George Macfarlane speaks on the topic of 'bacterial metabolism in the large intestine and its consequences for the host'.

The winners of the latest SfAM Communication Award talk to us about what motivates them to use the media as a vehicle for communicating science. Adam Rutherford - a scientist turned broadcaster - gets out of bed in the morning for the 'wow' factor in science stories he discovers. Ron Cutler does research in infection control and feels passionately that media appearances give him a priceless opportunity to tell people about the importance of hygiene and cleanliness.

Micropod's Nancy Mendoza grabs a few minutes with two of the speakers at the SfAM Spring Meeting in Sheffield. Judith Tanner tells us why bed jackets, wooly socks, and clean showers are important elements of the fight against surgical site infections. And Marcel Jaspars has been looking for new compounds, including antibiotics, in some very unusual places...

Following the recent resurgence of measles in South Wales, Micropod's Nancy Mendoza unpacks the MMR vaccine debacle that has been blamed for this latest outbreak. She speaks to John Illman, a health journalist who was writing for the national daily papers at the time; and Michael Fitzpatrick, a GP and parent of an autistic son who put his head above the parapet to counter Andrew Wakefield's claims of a link between the triple vaccine and autism.

Look out for a special edition of Microbiologist on microbiology in the media, which is out on 2 December (www.sfam.org.uk/microbiologist). The edition includes a feature by John Illman, on MMR.

The publishing landscape is changing. Traditionally, institutions have paid subscription fees to journals so that their employees can access the latest research. But this system doesn't work for everyone and many publications are moving to an open access model. In this podcast, the Society for Applied Microbiology's Phil Wheat, Deborah Kahn from BioMedCentral, and Jennifer McLennan at eLife discuss what this means for the scientific community.