The Archives

A trypanosome and a tsetse walk into a bar…
12.18.08 | Permalink | Comment?

Well, neither the tsetse nor the trypanosome actually “walk” per se… Anyway…
A while back I posted a brief “howsyourmother” on a PLoS ONE article discussing the role of trypanosomes in an extinction event on Easter Island during the late 19th century. As it turns out, in 2007, also in PLoS ONE, an article was published [...]
Extinction and disease in mammals
11.05.08 | Permalink | Comment?

An article that just came out in PLoS ONE is the first to uncover a correlation between pathogen introduction and an extinction event in a mammalian species.
According to Wyatt et al., in 1899 black rats were introduced to Easter Island via the S.S. Hindustan, and with them a pathogenic protozoan by the name of Trypanosoma [...]
The antibiotic resistance
10.23.08 | Permalink | Comment?

From Does Medcine without Evolution Make Sense, in PLoS Biology
Predict & prevent: Google’s infectious disease
10.21.08 | Permalink | Comment?

Today, emerging diseases are generally detected once they are already entrenched in the human population, and response systems are often slow and uneven. This initiative supports the move from a reactive to a proactive response to emerging threats.
Google.org has just announced a $15m initiative entitled Predict & Prevent, the goal of which is to understand [...]
Pathogens and climate change
10.08.08 | Permalink | Comment?

The Wildlife Conservation Society just released a very powerful, and extremely relevant, brochure on wildlife-human disease threats as exacerbated by the forces of human induced climate change (pdf) at the recent IUCN World Conservation Congress. According to health experts at the WCS, the increasing fluctuation in precipitation levels coupled with increasing temperatures place at risk [...]