The UK population continues to have a morbid fascination with fatbergs; these mammoth clumps of oil, wet wipes and human waste coagulate in sewers and grow with every flush. In 2017, a 130-tonne fatberg dubbed ‘The Beast’ made national headlines and even got its own museum exhibit. There is no doubt that fatbergs are disgusting, but what can we learn from them?
According to Water UK, up to 75% of fatbergs are made up of wet wipes, making them the main cause of sewer-blockages. Although many wet wipes are marketed as ‘flushable’, they do not break down and are made up of polyester, gripping onto oil and other waste and coagulating.
At Aberystwyth University, Dr Justin Pachebat and Professor Jo Hamilton volunteered to help analyse the contents of a London fatberg. We caught up with them to discuss their findings, how they became involved in their research and what challenges they encountered.
Professor Jo Hamilton presenting images of parasite eggs during filming of ‘Fat Autopsy: Secrets of the Sewers’
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In April, at the Microbiology Society Annual Conference 2018, Professor Sharon Peacock CBE, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine was awarded the Unilever Colworth Prize. Here, Dr Freya Harrison, from University of Warwick gives a summary of Sharon’s talk ‘Translating findings from bacterial whole genome sequencing into clinical practice and public health policy’, which you can watch below. 
