Beach issue....shameless pitch for science!

[altaboy]

I know this is the conservation/land use forum....but......Ocean/beach count in my book a related as I figure we all spend some time at the beach.

My wife is a biologist at a teaching university, where she has started this cool project that looks at what kind of microbes attach to floating plastic in the beaches. Research funding is hard to get especially for smaller institutions, so she has set up a fundraising page so she can set up a new sampling set in the fall. The idea is to find out if microbes affecting health could be attaching to plastic and therefore endangering coastal communities.
Any contribution is welcomed, we have $5-10 donors.
website: https://experiment.com/projects/what-kind-of-microbes-attach-to-floating-plastic-in-coastal-waters

Moderator: Let me know if this is inappropriate and I will sadly remove:ugh:

 

[altaboy]

shameless bump.....update from Professor Barral

Shameless bump...with up date from Professor Barral:

As we approach the beginning of August we are also approaching the last week of our fundraising efforts. Thanks to our latest backers we are now at 30% of our goal, and we hope that with some nudging we'll be able to get there. Please spread the word!

Linky: https://experiment.com/projects/what-kind-of-microbes-attach-to-floating-plastic-in-coastal-waters

Related article regarding bacteria in runoff leading to human collateral damage (even death) : this article mentions them with the case of the surfer who dies in SD: http://www.surfermag.com/features/contagion-present/#0I0f2S1ocEqHlS0W.97

Finally, thanks to anyone who has given this far. One donation (not sure from this forum) was for $250.....many thanks!

 

[altaboy]

Shameless bump....victory lap!

Shameless victory bump!

Hi all,

Just wanted to thank you for entertaining this post.

I am happy to report that 30+ people made gracious financial gifts to allow the project to move forward. I don't know if any one on this thread gave, but in any event a big thanks needs to go out, especially for not flaming it!