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Aetiology

Discussing causes, origins, evolution, and implications of disease and other phenomena.

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"...a veritable expert on tawdry cosmetic procedures gone horribly awry..."--Kevin Beck

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 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.

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Infectious Disease Series

Ecology:

Landscape ecology and infectious disease: macro meets micro

Little organisms + big ideas = novel interdisciplinary work.

On E. coli, super soil bacteria, and Hank Williams Jr.

Early this week, grant application; yesterday and today, IRB and IACUC for another project. But once again, fellow Sbers are keeping me busy reading about stories I'd like to be writing on; see yet again Mike on E. coli O157:H7--everything...

The threat of emerging poxviruses: replacements for smallpox?

1980 marked a milestone in infectious disease epidemiology: the World Health Organization declared the smallpox virus eradicated in the wild. However, while smallpox currently exists only in frozen stocks, poxviruses as a class certainly haven't disappeared. A related virus, monkeypox,...

What's Google got to do with emerging diseases?

Google.com + infectious disease research = delicious.

Thar's bacteria in that there snow!

Bacteria...is there anything they *can't* do?

Fecal transplants to cure Clostridium difficile infection

How much "ick factor" could you take to relieve yourself of a painful infection?

MRSA and swine: collision course

MRSA is everywhere: in your schools, your gyms, and now your farm animals.

Bad science writing of the day: your gut bacteria make you crave chocolate

Nestle funds research to investigate the effect of chocolate on gut microbes; reporter screws the pooch covering it.

Newly discovered Ebola viruses: filling in gaps in viral ecology

Ebola marches on...but just how has it spread across Africa?

Clostridium Marys

Carriers of a deadly bacterium are more common than previously thought.

Searching for drugs in new places

Lookin' for helpful microbes in the deep blue sea...

Ah, E. coli...is there any limit to your uses?

How about using it as a vaccine against tooth decay?

Marburg in bats: has the elusive reservoir species been found?

Has the elusive Marburg reservoir been found?

A few must-read posts

A veritable stew of microbial goodness...

Probiotics may fend off frog-killer

Way back in a few editions of Animalcules, several of the submissions mentioned a fungus that was killing frogs. Wednesday at the ASM meeting suggested that there may be a way to protect these amphibians:...

Environmental change and infectious disease

Everyone knows about the "butterfly effect": the idea that a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil could eventually result in the formation of a tornado in Texas by virtue of very small alterations in the initial conditions of a...

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