Silicification of organisms in silica-depositing environments can impact both their ecology and their presence in the fossil record. Although microbes have been silicified under laboratory and environmental conditions, viruses have not. Bacteriophage T4 was successfully silicified under laboratory conditions that closely simulated those found in silica-depositing hot springs. Virus morphology w...

In Guangdong province, many hot springs were exploited and developed into popular places for tourist. In addition, hotels have been set up near hot spring sites to attract people, including local citizens, to spend their spare time inside these so-called “spring hotels”. In our study, indoor air quality was investigated in four hot spring hotels in Guangdong province, China. Measured indoor pol...

Legionella are widely distributed in natural and man-made environments. In these environments, legionella can utilize metabolic products excreted by blue-green algae and other general bacteria, on the other hand they can multiply intracellularly within amoebaebody. The major infection route of legionella is via 1-5 |Lim diameter aerosols which contain the legionella and reach humanalveolar sept...