Now on ScienceBlogs: And so, driven on ceaselessly toward new shores
Discussing causes, origins, evolution, and implications of disease and other phenomena.
Tara C. Smith is an Assistant Professor of Epidemiology. Her research involves a number of pathogens at the animal-human nexus. Additionally, she is the founder of Iowa Citizens for Science and also writes for The Panda's Thumb and previously for WIRED SCIENCE's Correlations. Please note the views expressed on this site are Dr. Smith's alone and may not be representative of the groups mentioned above.
"...a veritable expert on tawdry cosmetic procedures gone horribly awry..."--Kevin Beck
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December 24, 2005
Category: Antibiotic resistance
NHANES is an abbreviation that's quite familiar to epidemiologists of all stripes: the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. This survey dates back to 1956 with the passage of the National Health Survey Act, providing legislative authorization for "a continuing...
Posted by Tara C. Smith at 10:00 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 21, 2005
Category: Intelligent design/creationism
kay, after going through the whole Kitzmiller decision last night, and damn, it's good. Really, incredibly good. This should be required reading. Jones' disgust at the whole thing comes through loud and clear. On page 29: Although proponents of the...
Posted by Tara C. Smith at 3:23 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 20, 2005
Category: Intelligent design/creationism
Plaintiffs Prevail The much-awaited decision in the Kitzmiller et al. v. Dover Area School District is now available. The 139 page document finds for the plaintiffs. Judge Jones finds that "intelligent design" is not science. The DASD ID policy violates...
Posted by Tara C. Smith at 10:36 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 16, 2005
Category: Historical studies of disease
I love these historical analyses of disease--real, or fictional. One historical event that has been the subject of much speculation over the decades has been the Plague of Athens, a mysterious outbreak that is thought to have changed the...
Posted by Tara C. Smith at 11:00 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 13, 2005
Category: Misc.
...I was suffering the worst pain I'd ever experienced. I arrived at the hospital a bit before 1AM, and spent the next four hours or so walking around in agony. By 5AM, I decided I was ready for some of...
Posted by Tara C. Smith at 12:00 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 5, 2005
Category: General Epidemiology
Clostridium difficile has joined MRSA, SARS, avian influenza, and West Nile as a hot new emerging disease. This bacterium, a cousin to Clostridium tetani-the causative agent of tetanus--and Clostridium botulinum--the botulism bacterium--is a spore-forming anaerobe. Carried by about 3 percent...
Posted by Tara C. Smith at 3:00 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 1, 2005
Category: Ecology
As I've mentioned before, Ebola is a virus near and dear to my heart. (Figuratively, not literally. I'm not quite that enamored of it). In that previous post, I mentioned that we didn't know the reservoir of Ebola in nature....
Posted by Tara C. Smith at 10:00 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
