Deforestation and emerging diseases
In the late 1990s a deadly new disease emerged from the tropical forests of Malaysia, spread by fruit bats whose natural habitat had been destroyed by deforestation. The Malaysian government was...
View ArticleThe unsolved anthrax murder mystery
The US public health system has serious vulnerabilities, and one major problem is identifying and responding to public health crimes.
View ArticleIs the United States prepared for a nuclear reactor accident?
As Japan struggles to contain the crisis at its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex, government officials in other nations are nervously assessing their own emergency-response policies and procedures for...
View ArticleThe Biological Weapons Convention: Proceeding without a verification protocol
The Seventh Review Conference of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) will be held this December in Geneva, with member states convening to assess the bioweapons nonproliferation regime and discuss...
View ArticleThe uncertainty surrounding sustainable agriculture
All of our planet's problems began 10,000 to 15,000 years ago with the domestication of livestock and crops, and it went downhill from there. While agriculture provided a stable food supply, it also...
View ArticleHow a deadly E. coli outbreak revealed Germany’s dysfunctional public health...
The plot just kept getting thicker. First, the culprit was cucumbers and tomatoes from Spain. Then it was bean sprouts from northern Germany. Then it wasn't.
View ArticleHow hurricane-proof is your state?
Even though it was downgraded to a Category 1 storm, Hurricane Irene still packed a serious punch. My family and I spent several nights in darkness, and our front yard turned into an ankle-deep bog.
View ArticleWhat Contagion missed
It's not often that Hollywood ventures into the realm of epidemics and public health, and when it does, the outcome is usually laughably out of touch with reality -- like Outbreak, the 1995 movie about...
View ArticleWhy isn't health care a US right?
The US Supreme Court will likely decide on the constitutionality of President Barack Obama's health care law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act -- which requires American citizens to...
View ArticleUsing microbes to fight microbes
There are more microorganisms in and on our bodies than human cells. In fact, scientists estimate that microorganisms outnumber human cells by 10 to 1. These microbes cover our skin, nose, mouth, and...
View ArticleGoing viral
We've been lucky. The avian influenza (H5N1) virus that first emerged in Hong Kong in 1997 -- which killed six and caused 18 serious illnesses -- has not acquired the ability to spread easily from...
View ArticleThe science fiction effect
It's alive! Neurophysiology. Huddled around a warm fireplace one cold summer's night in 1816, a small group of friends decided to hold a competition to see who could write the scariest horror story....
View ArticlePlastic-wrapped planet
We can thank billiard balls for our modern-day, plastic-filled lives. For most of human history, everyday items such as combs were made from expensive animal parts, like tortoise shells. Then, in the...
View ArticleDIY biology
In the nineteenth century, research in the natural and life sciences was largely self-supported. Charles Darwin had the good fortune of being born into a wealthy family, enabling him to pursue his...
View ArticleKeeping the life sciences honest
When scientist Ron Fouchier, from Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands, presented his research at a conference in Malta last year, he described how he and his colleagues induced mutations into the...
View ArticleThe One Health solution
The popular press is finally recognizing the important connections among human, animal, and environmental health. Environmental destruction, global trade and travel, intensive agriculture, and other...
View ArticleThe facts of fungi
It's the season for blood-sucking bats and flesh-eating zombies, but even the most ghoulish Halloween character can't hold a candle to one of the scariest life forms around: fungi.
View ArticleUndermining Obamacare
Now that President Barack Obama has been reelected, his Affordable Care Act, "Obamacare," will move forward, which is good news for the health, safety, and security of the United States. But setting up...
View ArticleWhy humans should go to Mars
Humans first emerged from Africa around 60,000 years ago in search of new lands to explore and colonize. Since then, we've spread out across much of the planet and even gone into low Earth orbit in the...
View ArticleWho would use chemical weapons?
The combatants in Syria are pointing fingers at each other. Syrian officials claim that the rebels used chemical weapons in a March 19th attack against Khan al-Assal, a town near Aleppo; the rebels say...
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