Bearded scientists: Will they kill us all?

This image comes from “Microbiological laboratory hazard of bearded men," a peer-reviewed research paper concerning the risk bearded scientists who work with bacteria and viruses might pose to their families. Published in 1967, the study tested whether bearded men were more likely to accidentally "carry" microbes home with them.

You can read the whole study online. And thank God for that. Because it's full of more great out-of-context quotes than I have time to cut and paste today.

Conclusion: Dirty hippie scientists shouldn't normally be a threat to family and friends. However, accidental beard-based contamination is possible, if the bearded scientist in question does a lot of repetitive, close-contact work with microbes. (Read: Grad students) In which case, those scientists should really wash their beards before they leave the lab.

Thanks, David Ng!

• [lknope]

  Your moustache hairs is in violations…POLICE THAT MOOSTACHE!

• [Patrick Aaron Murphy]

  There are special masks you can wear that seal all around your beard..I can’t seem to find an image of it at the moment, but it’s kind of like a thin hat with two ties that cross over your face, covering the entire beard.  We have to use it in healthcare for sterile procedures (the usual stock mask that comes in the kits is lifted off the face by the beard so isn’t adequate), you see them a lot in the operating room.

• [xenphilos]

  I, for one, fully support (hygienic) beard science.

• [yahoo-KEEYVOKLLBZUMX3PLWZ735JM4E]

  Obligatory:

• [hassenpfeffer]

  Them thar menfolk look lahk Muzzlems–arrest ‘em and send ‘em to Gitmo! Where’s Dick Cheney’s phone number?!?

• [Art]

  We opened for these guys in CBGB’s in 1979 :)

• [nanuq]

  If hair is such a danger, shouldn’t they be shaving their heads as well?

  • [hassenpfeffer]

    Agreed. Henceforth, every scientist or technician, regardless of gender, must bathe head to toe in NAIR before entering any laboratory facility.

• [Tim L]

  Figure 3 from that paper is going to be the cover of my next album.

• [Finnagain]

  Beard news you can ews!

• [Jeff Gralnick]

  Jon Eisen tweeted this to me just a few minutes ago – the Beardome! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdZ6YzABgSk&feature=player_embedded

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    Damn. Beard-ome, not Bear-dome.

• [samovar100]

  But which one of this fab four was called, “the cute one”?

• [Jonathan Badger]

  Of course, the fathers of microbiology, Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch,  had quite impressive beards…

• [BarBarSeven]

  Steven Soderbergh’s new project: Hirsute Vector

• [Lexicat]

  Ah! So much much fun! One of my students submitted this for a study critique in my quantitative research methods class last fall. Woot!

• [marcabrahams]

  The authors were awarded the 2010 Ig Nobel Prize in public health: http://improbable.com/ig/winners/#ig2010 

• [superkuh]

  If you thought that was funny, then you’ll loved the parody video about the “Beard-ome” (like genome, proteom, etc) made by the hilarious group Hydrocalypse industries, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdZ6YzABgSk

• [M]

  If you put a *really* rare copy of “Yesterday and Today” in the oven and peel carefully, you’ll find this.

• [David Smith]

  At least they aren’t wearing ties.  Wasn’t there an earlier article on nastiness transmitted via doctors’ neckties?

• [Joel Friesen]

  http://bearded.scientists.willkillusall.com

• [jtotheizzoe]

  I wrote about this same article back in March on the LabSpaces guest blog, and whether it was part of a program to discriminate against un-American science activities.
  Many people found it funny, you might too.http://www.labspaces.net/blog/1274/On_Beards__Biology__and_Being_a_Real_American