UO researcher uses a swab to collect a microbial sample from a block of cross laminated timber. Credit: University of Oregon Picture a hospital and you might imagine concrete, stainless steel or plastic. But University of Oregon researchers hope to make wood—often overlooked in health care facilities—more commonplace in those settings. Exposed wood, they've found, can resist microbial growth after it briefly gets wet. During their study, wood samples tested lower for levels of bacterial abundanc...