1. Newton Meets Darwin at the Indoor Microbiome
William W Nazaroff
Civil & Environmental Engineering Dept.
University of California, Berkeley
Microbiomes of Built Environments
Indoor Air 2011
Austin, Texas, USA
Isaac Newton (1643-1727)
8 June 2011 Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
Image sources: nndb.com; treehugger.com; summitpediatrics.blogspot.com; h2it.org; jaymecarleton.org; housevaluequotes.com 1

2. Scope
• Observations about collaborative research
• Attributes of successful joint efforts
• Collaborating on indoor microbiome:
Opportunities and challenges
• My background (mostly Newtonian!):
– Physics (BA), EECS (MEng), environmental engineering science (PhD)
– Civil & Environmental Engineering faculty since 1989
– Involved in many collaborative projects & programs (small teams and large)
– Chaired Energy & Resources Group at Berkeley for 4 y
2

3. The inspiration behind the talk’s title …
Physicists and ecologists approach their crafts from different intellectual traditions, as
exemplified by the differing values they attach to the search for simplification and
universality. As a particle theorist by training, currently engaged in the study of ecology
and global change, I have witnessed dysfunctional consequences of this bimodal
legacy. I argue here for a synthesis of what I call the Newtonian and Darwinian
approaches to science.
Source: John Harte, Physics Today (October 2002). 3

4. Harte’s description of our “bimodal legacy”
Physics Ecology
The more you look, The more you look,
the simpler it gets the more complex it gets
Primacy of initial conditions Primacy of contingency and
complex historical factors
Universal patterns; Weak trends;
search for laws reluctance to seek laws
Predictive (quantum mechanics Mostly descriptive, explanatory
notwithstanding)
Central role for idealized systems Disdain for caricatures of nature
(e.g., PV = nRT)
Source: John Harte, Physics Today (October 2002). 4

5. Harte: Elements of a synthesis
• Simple, falsifiable models (*)
• Search for patterns and laws
• Embrace the science of place (†)
(*) It is the mark of an instructed (†) Place-centered studies
mind to rest satisfied with the degree provide the best means we
of precision which the nature of the have for going beyond pattern
subject permits and not to seek an to process — for identifying the
exactness where only an actual mechanisms at work.
approximation of the truth is — Harte
possible. — Aristotle
Sources: John Harte, Physics Today (October 2002); Consider a Spherical Cow (1988). 5

6. Does Harte’s analysis apply to indoor microbiome?
• Newton and Darwin don’t live here.
• The indoor environment
research community Health
operates at the
intersection of three
domains
Buildings Environment
• These domains have
independent intellectual
traditions and professional
communities Indoor environments
6

7. Observations about collaborative research
• “Multidisciplinary” is a woefully inadequate term to describe
the multifaceted and richly nuanced nature of collaborations
involving researchers from different backgrounds.
Humanities Social Sciences Natural Sciences
Biochemistry
Comparative Religious Molecular and Cell Biology
Literature Studies Chemistry
Psychology Integrative Biology
Rhetoric Economics Ecology
Language Music Classics
Sociology Geology
Studies Anthropology
Art History Demography Atmospheric Science
History Political Physics
American Science Mathematics
Studies Statistics
Film
An Academic
Phylogenetic
Tree (conceptual) 7

8. Observations about collaborative research
• Successful collaborations seem to occur more often in small
groups (2-3 senior investigators) rather than in large teams (*)
(*) Some possible reasons: High transaction costs for rich communication;
high personal responsibility in small teams
Image sources: collaborationblog.org; ctit.utwente.nl
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9. Some key ingredients of successful collaborations
• High level of mutual trust and respect (*)
• Commitment to teach and to learn w/ patience & persistence
• Generousness in sharing credit
• Strengths of one complements weaknesses of other
• High dose of student involvement (Harte’s “gluons”)
(*) On mutual
respect →
Comic source: xkcd.com 9

10. Indoor microbiome: Opportunities
• DNA-based measurement
methods are game changing
• Sloan Foundation funding is
good: quantity and quality
• Fundamental and seminal
improvements in
understanding the
relationship between indoor
environmental quality and
human well being appear
within reach
Figure source: A Spor et al., Nature Reviews Microbiology 9, 279, 2011. 10

11. Indoor microbiome: Some challenges
• Do we know enough to ask the right questions?
• Will the support be adequate to sustain a longer-term effort?
• Are we sufficiently iconoclastic to counteract academic inertia?
D Altshuler et al., A haplotype map of the M Ezzati et al., Selected major risk factors and
human genome, Nature 437, 1299, 2005; global and regional burden of disease, Lancet
2369 citations. 360, 1347, 2002; 870 citations.
Well-cited genomics paper. Most cited “indoor*” paper, ever.
Figures from ISI Web of Science.
11

12. Newtonian indoor microbiome collaboration
Jing Qian, Naomichi Yamamoto, Nina Hospodsky,
Postdoctoral scholar Postdoctoral scholar PhD candidate
Jordan Peccia, PI
Yale University,
Chemical Engineering
Hamid Rismani-Yazdi, Kyle Bibby,
Bill Nazaroff, Postdoctoral scholar PhD student
UC Berkeley 12

13. Collaboration is producing fruit, after 3 y…
• Research team synthesizes relevant expertise:
— Modern, DNA-based analytical methods applied to
bioaerosols (Peccia lab)
— Aerosol dynamics, especially in indoor environments
(Nazaroff)
• Research articles in late stages of preparation prior
to journal submission:
— J Qian et al., Size distributed emission rates of airborne
bacteria and fungi in indoor air due to occupancy.
— D Hospodsky et al., Dense human occupancy as a source
of indoor airborne bacteria.
— N Yamamoto et al., Particle size distributions and
seasonal concentrations of selected airborne fungi in the
northeastern United States. 13

14. Berkeley Indoor Microbial Ecology Research Center
Steven Lindow
Rachel Adams,
(PMB) John Taylor (PMB)
Postdoctoral scholar
Tom Bruns, PI (PMB)
Gary Anderson Ed Arens Allen Goldstein Bill Nazaroff Seema Bhangar,
(LBNL) (Arch) (ESPM) (CEE) Postdoctoral scholar 14

15. Newton met Darwin at the scientists’ Last Supper!
Dawkins
Einstein Edison
Curie Tyson
Hawking
Oppenheimer Pasteur Sagan
Galileo Aristotle Darwin
Newton
But, with this seating arrangement, did they get a chance to talk?
Source: sciencewallpaper.com (Nick Farrantello) 15