Why scientists are studying germ universe in N.Y. subway

Some DNA samples on subway surfaces matched no known organisms studied before, while others were fragments associated with anthrax and the bubonic plague. In some cases, the germs reflected the diversity of the city’s neighborhoods.

Medical students, graduate students and volunteers — under the direction of senior investigator Dr. Christopher E. Mason of Weill Cornell Medical College — had the unenviable task of spending 17 months in the New York underground collecting microorganisms from every subway stations along the system’s 24 lines, according to a report published this week.

There should be a Nobel category for that?

Scientists chose the New York City subway system because it is the largest in the world by station count and transports 5.5 million people per day, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Mason said the report can have broad and lasting implications. A DNA clue can “represent a ‘genetic history’ of that person’s daily or weekly travels,” which may evoke a fear of privacy invasion in some. But there is also a potential for new forensic tools and methods to those in the criminal justice field.

In the immediate future, however, Mason and his team believe their study is a “first step” towards protecting the health of New Yorkers — and could be the basis for a “smart city” where leaders use the data to improve city planning as well as management of mass transit and human health.

And leave the latex gloves at home.

“It is absolutely not necessary to ride the subway with gloves on,” Mason, the senior investigator, told CNN affiliate WCBS. “When we were taking samples, I saw people with paper towels, gloves with plastic on their hands — all of it is unnecessary.”

CNN