“It’s a Microbial World; We Just Live in It”: Microbial Symbionts Profiled Masterfully by Yong

from 1998 through to 2014, providing at least 16 years of foodborne disease data as of the date of this review (1). On the entry page of FOOD, the dashboard view provides search option tabs on the left of the page with the remainder of the page displaying a large interactive map, a chart of outbreaks by year, and a chart of outbreaks by month, as well as some brief statistics and other links. The search option tabs are also very useful. These tabs are for Year, State, Location of Preparation, Food/Ingredient, and Etiology or causative agent of illness. Fields can be selected within these search options, and the interactive map, charts and quick stats are automatically updated in real time without delay as search option criteria are selected, added, or removed. These rapidly generated graphics provide a quick and easy way to understand the quantitative data of any outbreak, which can then be readily communicated to students. In the same way, students searching for information on a foodborne outbreak can just as rapidly find the information they are looking for. The raw data from any searchable outbreak can be very easily downloaded as an Excel data file. The link for this embedded tool is clearly displayed with the recognizable Excel icon. This data file contains columns with informa-ingredient. While some of these data columns mirror the search option tabs, the additional data columns of Serotype or Genotype, Illnesses, Hospitalizations, and Deaths provide a more comprehensive assessment of the outbreak. In addition, access to this raw data allows users to generate their own tables, graphs, charts and figures. This is a very helpful teaching tool when generating figures for a lecture but even more so for undergraduate students in introductory microbiology courses who are learning how to access public data, use spreadsheets, generate charts, interpret results, and conduct their own analyses. One of the limitations of the FOOD tool is that users are only able to download raw data as Excel files. There are no direct options to download other file formats such as .csv or .txt, but these file formats can be easily generated from the Excel file. Unfortunately, an image of the large interactive map cannot be downloaded for repurposing. There are related minor concerns that are similar, including limited image resolution, the need to create your own state labels, and the inability to change color schemes. Most …