What connection does dirt have to our wellbeing?
An event today at Victoria University of Wellington, called DIRT, will explore that topic from the perspectives of four academics from different parts of the University — each of their research specialities relating in some way to the relationship between dirt and health.
DIRT is part of Victoria’s Outside the Box seminar series and has been organised by the team leading the University’s Health and Wellbeing area of academic focus.
“Dirt has all sorts of cultural connotations and meanings,” says Dr Jayne Krisjanous, a senior lecturer in the School of Marketing and International Business and the main coordinator of the DIRT seminar.
“It’s where we play, it’s our life-force, and increasingly it’s a source of interest in terms of food production and ecosystems — people want to know where our food comes from and what has gone into it.”
Krisjanous has extensively researched the way healthcare products are marketed and is speaking at the event about dirt and cleanliness.
“Dirt has long been portrayed in advertising as the bad guy — it’s been a useful tool for advertisers over the years, who have harnessed people’s fears and anxieties to promote healthcare and cleaning products.”
But she says dirt’s reign of terror over consumers might be coming to an end.
“We are beginning to see laundry powder companies embrace the idea of getting muddy and dirty, and an increase in products being marketed that facilitate consumers’ contact with dirt — such as opportunities provided by the increasing popularity of vegetable plots in residential backyards,” says Dr Krisjanous.
“I’m not sure whether these companies are leading the way or simply following cultural trends but it’s clear dirt is not the public enemy it was portrayed as historically.”
Another speaker is discussing his work deriving drugs from the dirt around us.
Dr Jeremy Owen, a senior lecturer in the School of Biological Sciences, leads a research group focused on finding new antibiotics to combat drug-resistant bacterial infections.
“Most people know the antibiotic penicillin was isolated from a fungus,” he says. “But what’s less known is most of our best antibiotics actually come from bacteria that can be found in soil. I’ll be talking about new methods for the discovery of antibiotics derived from these abundant bacteria.”
Owen’s research team is focusing on using DNA sequencing and synthetic biological approaches to access compounds produced by bacteria that are only found in soil and cannot be grown in a laboratory.
Owen says a looming antibiotic resistance crisis — which could turn even a small cut to the finger into a life-threatening event — means there’s an urgent need to find new antibiotic strains.
“Presently, scientists can culture less than 1 percent of bacteria that exist on earth — these have provided nearly all of the antibiotics currently used in medicine. But as resistance to these existing antibiotics grows, we need to turn to the hidden bacteria that can’t be cultured in a lab setting, and borrow their genetic blueprints. We can then transfer those blueprints to another bacteria we can grow in the lab, with the hope they are able to read the instructions and create new antibiotics.”
The audience will also hear about the important — and arguably lost — role of dirt in education.
Dr Barrie Gordon, a senior lecturer in health and physical education at Victoria’s Faculty of Education, will look at how an increasing emphasis in schools on academic outcomes is having a negative effect on children’s health.
“Subjects where you get your hands dirty — and that includes things like drama, music and technology as well as physical education — have become second tier to maths, science and literacy,” says Dr Gordon. “But those more physical ways of learning are just as important to a child’s overall education — the Government seems to have lost sight of the need to educate the whole child in favour of a system that focuses purely on children’s academic results.”
The significance of soil as a thematic element in the work of a Nobel Laureate poet will also be a focus of the DIRT event.
Dr Marco Sonzogni, a Reader in Translation Studies at the School of Languages and Cultures, will be presenting his research on the work of poet Seamus Heaney, where dirt and soil are a recurring theme.
“I think there’s a very strong relationship in Heaney’s work between poetry and the environment,” says Sonzogni. “His famous poem ‘Digging’ is a great example. He also writes a lot about archaeological remains and excavation in his bog poems — he talks about bodies that have been dug out of the soil that are examples of the human condition.”
Sonzogni, himself a published poet, has been studying and translating Heaney’s writing for the last 25 years, and has recently published the definitive Italian translation of the Irish poet’s work.
“I really admire Seamus Heaney’s ability to find the extraordinary in the ordinary — the miracles in everyday things. I want to explore the relevance of dirt and earth that is so central to his poetry.”
Krisjanous says the DIRT event is a fantastic way for researchers who have an interest in health and wellbeing to come together in what promises to be a lively evening.
“The aim is to bring together thinkers from different disciplines to spark ideas and prompt some dynamic discussions. It will be a chance to engage in conversation and collaboration, to break down silos and share ideas — a way to ‘cross-fertilise’, if you’ll pardon the pun.”
This article originally appeared on Newsroom.