There may be more than coffee in that cup. Office mugs are home to fecal bacteria that can make people sick, researcher Charles Gerba says, and the higher you are in the office hierarchy, the more likely something truly disgusting is in your cup.
"My theory was that the secretaries were washing cups in the toilets to get even with the boss," says Dr. Gerba, a germ guru at the University of Arizona.
It is bad enough that three-quarters of the dirty-looking cups, the ones with "brown crud" on the bottom, had fecal bacteria in them. But 20 per cent of the clean-looking cups he sampled were also contaminated.
The source, aside from the toilet bowl, appears to be the dishrag or sponge in the office kitchen. It becomes home base for bacteria after being used by people who don't wash their hands after going to the bathroom or who clean up contaminated food.
Dr. Gerba's first coffee-cup findings were made almost a decade ago, but since then he has continued to do research on bacteria and viruses in the office environment. He has taken samples from more than 1,000 workplaces.
A study coming out in a few weeks will rank various professions by how germy they are. (Dr. Gerba expected TV newsrooms to be bad because they share computers and work stations, but they weren't the worst. He didn't want to reveal which profession topped the list until the study is released.)
It isn't just the cups that may be infectious. Telephones and desk areas tend to have more bacteria on them than toilet seats, Dr. Gerba says. He suggests cleaning your phone, desk and computer keyboard with an antiseptic wipe every few days.
As for the cups, he says a dishwasher is the best way to make sure they are clean. If you lobby your boss for one, you can argue it is in his or her best interest.
Duelling telescopes
It looks like a suitcase in space. But Canadian astronomers say a telescope the size of a clunky piece of luggage is dominating the search for Earth-like planets around distant stars.
Not for long, though. The French are planning to launch a space-based planet-hunting telescope called Corot this year. In 2008, a $299-million American space-based telescope called Kepler is scheduled for launch. It has the best shot at finding a planet in the so called Goldilocks zone -- not too hot, not too cold for life that depends on liquid water, says Jaymie Matthews, an astronomer at the University of British Columbia.
The $10-million Canadian telescope was designed to probe the inside of stars by studying the tiny vibrations they make. It is doing double duty looking for signs of the subtle gravitational tugs hidden Earth-like planets would make on distant stars.
Someone will probably find a planet that could sustain life within a decade, Dr. Matthews says. The Canadians have a chance. "We are the lower-middle-class guy in the Grand Casino in Monte Carlo. We've got the clip-on tie and 50 bucks in our pocket and we are playing James Bond. But we still could hit the jackpot."
No wobbly wheel, we hope
The car of the future may be stackable, like shopping carts at the grocery store or luggage carts at the airport. There would be stacks outside subway stations or bus stops. In cities congested by traffic, commuters would take one of the electric cars, drive to their destination and park it at another depot.
That's the vision of a team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who were helped in the styling of the new two-person buggy by architect Frank Gehry.
The idea works for bicycles in some European cities, including Copenhagen. To get one of the bikes, commuters or tourists need to place a cash deposit into the bike stand, which they get back when they park the bike in another designated spot.
The MIT team is preparing to present its design to General Motors, which plans to build a prototype.
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