Media

The Path From the Bathroom

Reframing what we flush into what we might treasure By Sally James

When he was 10, Bryn Nelson wanted to grow up to be a veterinarian. The Minnesota boy loved his cat, Smokey, and his dog, Heather, and catching and releasing frogs. He did not dream his penchant for pets would lead him to study microscopic life forms and author a 432-page book about human feces. He followed his love for animals and science to become both a microbiologist and a writer.

Nelson, ’98, became a scientist first. After his junior year at Concordia College, he spent the summer inside a fly genetics laboratory at the Baylor College of Medicine. That experience and an older brother already in grad school primed Nelson as he headed for graduate studies at the University of Washington School of Medicine.

Partway through his doctorate at the School of Medicine, he heard about a science writing master’s degree at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He met someone who attended, and grilled them to make sure this was the right path. He started writing about science for The Daily to build up clips.

Now “there’s certainly much more awareness of alternative careers, but at the time there wasn’t,” he says. At the time, students could either do postdoctoral research and hope to someday have their own labs at research universities, or they could work for industry. Neither was for him.

His expertise in science writing turned out to be a golden ticket. Nelson completed two internships with Newsday and eventually was offered a full-time job. In the heyday of science coverage, the newspaper would fly him to space shuttle launches and news events about cloning. He worked with a photographer and graphic designer for big print projects. Then, with the downturn of the newspaper industry, he shifted to freelance work and moved to Seattle from Brooklyn with his husband-to-be.

Nelson’s new book, “Flush: The Remarkable Science of an Unlikely Treasure,” began with him researching a magazine article on fecal transplants. Fecal transplants are the donation of one person’s waste into another person’s gastrointestinal tract to restore a balance of gut microbes. This is an effective treatment for some patients with a runaway infection from Clostridium difficile, or C. diff, one kind of gut bacteria that causes severe diarrhea and can be fatal. Treatment with antibiotics is often not effective.

In 2014, when Nelson wrote a magazine story about a woman who almost died from a C. diff infection, he became fascinated with how our cultural disgust with feces might have delayed the medical community from fully accepting the value of fecal transplants in certain cases. Such transplants are much more widely practiced now. In September, the Food and Drug Administration gave committee approval for a fecal transplant product prepared by Ferring Pharmaceutical.

“It was this rapid evolution of something from this kind of laughed-at folk remedy essentially into something saving lives and vastly outperforming antibiotics,” Nelson says. “That got me thinking about other potential uses.”

In his book, different chapters identify ways that human waste can serve as a resource that returns clean water to a community, or fertilizes agricultural land, or helps an environmentally responsible building stay green. The circular economy for human waste offers approaches for some of the challenges of climate change. To give just one example, recycling water from urine and feces is a way to restore drinking water to California areas that are dependent on the Colorado River.

“Eventually, I was able to find an agent,” Nelson says, for what he calls his quirky topic. His book was published in September and has been reviewed by news outlets including The New York Times. That review, by Elizabeth Royte, calls Nelson “irrepressibly curious, prone to punning and incapable of embarrassment.” He “examined his stool daily for a year, using three apps that tracked frequency, speed of transit, quantity, consistency and color.”

Nelson does bring a scientist’s zeal for detail to all that he examines in the book. That includes his own waste as well as studies of the waste of thousands of other humans.

MEDIA

Seattleness, a Cultural Atlas

By Tera Hatfield, ’12, Jenny Kempson, ’11, and Natalie Ross Sasquatch Books, November 2022 Hatfield and Kempson, who hold UW master’s degrees in landscape architecture and design, and their co-author Ross bring their expertise in different areas of design to create an engaging cultural atlas of Seattle. The book covers a breadth of subjects with maps, charts, illustrations and photography, and offers insights into coffee, UFO sightings, grunge hot spots and other things that make the city special.

Bad Mothers, Bad Daughters

By Maya Sonenberg Notre Dame Press, August 2022 Sonenberg, a UW creative writing professor, crafted a collection of 23 modern tales that take their shapes from fairytales, letters, even newspaper announcements. With some stories of just a few hundred words, she explores family relationships in a range of settings and styles. The book won the Richard Sullivan Prize in Short Fiction, which is sponsored by the University of Notre Dame’s creative writing program.

Earthworks Rising: Mound Building in Native Literature and Arts

By Chadwick Allen University of Minnesota Press, March 2022 A network of earthworks, structures created by Native peoples centuries ago, dots the landscape of the Northeast. Allen, an English professor and adjunct professor of American Indian Studies, digs into the art, tradition and purposes of these feats of design and engineering. His work shows how Indigenous writers and artists connect with ancient knowledge conveyed in the mounds.

Dalmatia and Norway Welcome You with Open Arms

It’s time to travel again, and UW Alumni Tours has exciting adventures for you

Pearls of Dalmatia | May 1-15, 2023

Tour Operator: Odysseys Unlimited

With life beginning to resemble what it was like before the pandemic turned everything upside down, it is time to think about getting out of town. UW Alumni Tours has some fantastic adventures for next spring that deserve your attention. So go find your passports and suitcases. And remember: You don’t have to be a UW graduate to travel with UW Alumni Tours!

Check out these highlighted trips. And there is plenty more to see at Washington.edu/alumni/travel/.

Independent, democratic Croatia welcomes visitors eager to absorb its remarkable history and culture—along with its beautiful and unspoiled Dalmatian coastline. As you travel from historic Zagreb and beautiful Lake Bled to the Habsburg resort of Opatija, the island of Hvar and beloved Dubrovnik, see why this cherished region lays such a claim on the hearts of all who visit.

As the Midnight Sun turns night to day, Scandinavia shines. June is the perfect time to visit, with the majestic countryside at its loveliest, and the cities at their liveliest. From the cosmopolitan capitals of Copenhagen and Oslo, to Norway’s magnificent fjord country, our small group encounters Scandinavia at its best, both on and off the beaten path.

A program of the UW Alumni Association

Norwegian Splendor | June 5-20, 2023

Tour Operator: Odysseys Unlimited

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COVID-19 UPDATE In this rapidly evolving situation, the most current travel advice can be found at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of State. For more detailed tours information, please review washington.edu/alumni/travel/covid-19-response/

NEWS FROM THE UWAA

Alumni Supporting Students

The UW Alumni Association supports students from day one, to graduation and beyond.

For many UWAA members, supporting the next generation of Huskies is a primary reason for joining the organization. Whether they were directly involved with UWAA programming during their campus days or simply want to lend a hand to current students, UWAA members show their support in a wide variety of ways.

Member dues and ticket revenue from select events such as our popular UW Night at the Mariners help to underwrite our student scholarship programs. Annually, six Homecoming Scholars representing all three campuses are selected, and their stories exemplify Husky adaptability, tenacity and resolve. This year, thanks to an innovative partnership with AT&T and the active social media participation of runners at the October Alaska Airlines Dawg Dash, the 2022 Homecoming Scholarship awards doubled from $2,000 to $4,000.

Beyond making an impact with scholarships, UWAA produces an annual calendar of programs and events designed to introduce and connect students to the broader alumni community, be it through career exploration opportunities like Huskies@Work, fun learning activities like last year’s sold-out Houseplants 101 classes, or invitations to Husky Social opportunities at local businesses and cultural organizations. For the past three years, graduating classes have been offered a free, annual digital membership to deepen their relationship with the alumni community.

Together, we can create a welcoming place for all Huskies—past, present and future.

Read more about this year’s Homecoming Scholars and other student programming at UWalum.com/future-alumni.

Scholarship recipients: Sophie Li, Nicole Grabiel, Christian Gombio, Rahoul Banerjee Ghosh. Not pictured: Ana Radzi, Aaron Davis.

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