Flashback Friday: Microbiologists discover caffeine-adapted bacteria living in the sludge in their office coffee machine.

Photo: flickr/Ricardo BernardoWe can just imagine the scenario that spawned this paper: a bunch of microbiologists sitting around the lab coffee machine, looking for a way to procrastinate, and voila...coffee machine microbiome! Here, the researchers not only sampled bacteria from 10 different Nespresso machines, but they also "conducted a dynamic monitoring of the colonization process in a new machine" (charge new lab coffee machine to grant: check). They found that bacteria rapidly colonized the sludge that sits inside the machines, and many of these species were adapted to the high levels of caffeine and other compounds found in coffee. We'd suggest that they study what lives in the office fridge next, but really--not even a microbiologist wants to go there!The coffee-machine bacteriome: biodiversity and colonisation of the wasted coffee tray leach "Microbial communities are ubiquitous in both natural and artificial environments. However, microbial diversity is usually reduced under strong selection ...