Have you ever wondered if a UV light box could get rid of bacteria on your toothbrush?  You are not the only one!  There are multiple types of devices that are sold online that advertise that they can sanitize your toothbrush.  You will put that claim to the test in this set of experiments.  First, you'll soak a toothbrush in a diluted mixture of bacteria, then you'll expose it to ultraviolet light and see if any bacteria survived.  

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Spaceflight affects the human body in numerous ways, but one underexplored area is the mouth. The mouth is home to rich populations of bacteria and fungi which, studies have hinted, can undergo shifts during long and even short space missions. For the first time, researchers have tracked changes in the oral microbiome during and after spaceflight and examined how those changes might reawaken dormant viruses — a phenomenon long known to affect astronauts. The team analyzed saliva samples from 10 male astronauts for microbial makeup and for the presence of Epstein-Barr, herpes simplex, and varicella zoster virus. Only Epstein-Barr virus counts appeared to track with changes in microbial composition during spaceflight. For example, increased virus counts coincided with increased numbers of bacteria of the genus Gracilibacteria, while low counts coincided with increased numbers of members of Oribacteria and Hemophilus..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Braces can make teeth straighter and result in a healthier looking smile But can they prevent tooth decay? New research says no Many people think braces early in life can help avoid future tooth decay Because people think straighter teeth are easier to brush But a study at the University of Adelaide found no proof of this The team followed more than 400 teens for 17 years—over 1/3 of whom had received braces By age 30, there was no difference in the number of decayed teeth between those who had received braces and those who had not Greater numbers of decayed teeth were strongly linked to brushing less than twice a day While the study focused on one Australian city, the message does appear clear To avoid tooth decay, there’s no better advice than brushing twice a day Doğramacı EJ and Brennan DS. “The influence of orthodontic treatment on dental caries: An Australian cohort study.” Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology (2019). DOI: 10.1111/cdoe..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"At birth, the mouth is sterile and relatively germ-free. It's only later that bacteria colonize the mouths of children. But little is understood about how and why certain bacteria triumph over others some of which are responsible for spreading diseases such as dental caries and periodontal disease. It’s a question of what matters more: genetics or environment, nature or nurture? To find out researchers compared the mouths of two groups of people. Parents and their biological children and parents and their adopted children. This design helped researchers separate genetic factors from environmental ones affecting the oral microbiota. Results showed no differences in how closely oral bacterial profiles matched between adoptive versus biological mother-child pairs. In fact, the oral microbiomes of all children more closely resembled those of their own mothers than those of unrelated women suggesting that contact and shared environment play a bigger role than genetics alone..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Advancements in next-generation sequencing have opened the door to detailed analyses of the human microbiome. This technique has many applications, and pancreatic cancer research is one of them. Pancreatic cancer is a devastating disease with an estimated 5-year survival rate of only 11%. Most cases, over 80%, are not found until the cancer is too advanced to successfully treat, but pancreatic cancer patients show shifts in their oral microbiome, which could be detected years earlier than current methods allow. Pathogenic oral bacteria have also been found within pancreatic tumors, which is another potential link between them. However, these findings barely scratch the surface of how the oral microbiome relates to pancreatic cancer. The oral microbiome is influenced by a combination of host-related and environmental factors, which include genetics, race, ethnicity, smoking, socioeconomics, and age..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.