{"id":404306,"date":"2026-01-12T09:04:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T09:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/404306\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T09:04:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T09:04:07","slug":"the-sludge-in-your-shower-drain-that-could-be-scientists-next-big-find-short-wave-npr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/404306\/","title":{"rendered":"The sludge in your shower drain? That could be scientists\u2019 next big find : Short Wave : NPR"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"An<\/p>\n

\n See the rust on this pipe pumping natural mineral water? That rust is produced by microbes… and some scientists think those microbes, and others like them found in our homes, showers, and bathroom drains, could be our next big discovery.<\/p>\n

Ari Daniel<\/p>\n

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toggle caption<\/p>\n

Ari Daniel<\/p>\n

Microbes are little alchemists that perform all manner of chemical reactions. A team of microbiologists co-founded a non-profit to try to harness those abilities to solve some of the world’s big problems \u2014 from carbon capture to helping coral reefs to cleaning up waste.<\/p>\n

Recently, the team turned their attention to the microbes living in people’s homes \u2014 on and in shower heads, drip pans, and hot water heaters. These rather extreme environments may have pressured microorganisms into surviving in ways that could be advantageous to humans. Science reporter Ari Daniel<\/a> takes us on a treasure hunt in miniature.<\/p>\n

Interested in more about the weird and wonderful world of microbes? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org\/shortwave<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Listen to Short Wave on Spotify<\/a> and Apple Podcasts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This episode was produced by Hannah Chinn. It was edited by Rebecca Ramirez. Tyler Jones checked the facts. The audio engineer was Robert Rodriguez.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"See the rust on this pipe pumping natural mineral water? That rust is produced by microbes… and some…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[49,48,61],"class_list":["post-404306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}