Tara C. Smith
Associate Professor, lab rat (microbiologist/infectious disease epidemiologist) and occasional blogger, full-time nerd.
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Posts by this author
March 29, 2007
Influenza season is wrapping up here in the United States, and it seems so far that the 2006-7 season was pretty typical. The first cases of the disease were reported in late October, and cases were sporadic throughout November and early December. After increasing a bit in mid-late December of…
March 24, 2007
Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection is as old as civilization. The bacterium infects approximately a third of the world's population--roughly 2 billion individuals. It's estimated that 8 million new cases are contracted each year--around a new infection every second. ~2 million individuals die…
March 23, 2007
I have a host of collected links and one-liner posts that I hoped I'd get to this week, but just didn't have the time for. So, rather than let them collect dust any longer, I'll put a number of "greatest hits" in microbiology and public health from the past week or so after the fold:
John McCain…
March 23, 2007
Apologies for the blog silence again this week. Last week was a bit crazy and I'm still catching up for it. I have a write-up of last weekend's evolution and intelligent design conference on the way, but before I attended that, I met up quickly for drinks and conversation with a few other…
March 15, 2007
When we think of the spread of antibiotic resistance between animals and humans, we tend to think of it going from Them to Us. For example, much of the research over the past 20 years on the sub-clinical use of antibiotics in animal feed has looked how this use of antibiotics as a growth…
March 14, 2007
Just a reminder that there will be a symposium this weekend discussing evolution and intelligent design at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa. The event is geared toward those interested in matters of faith or science; teachers; principals; college students majoring in education, science and…
March 14, 2007
The most recent edition of Tangled Bank, your one-stop science blogging carnival, is up over at Living the Scientific Life.
In addition, there are a few other posts I've been meaning to plug:
Nick on Texas House overturning mandatory HPV vaccination.
Burt at Panda's Thumb on Why you should care…
March 13, 2007
I was out yesterday, and as such missed Lynn Margulis' blog tour stop at Pharyngula. For those who may not be familiar with Margulis, she's a professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and was the one who pushed the (now accepted) idea that chloroplasts and mitochondria in cells came…
March 8, 2007
Our local "Dissenter from Darwinism," Fred Skiff, gave a talk last Friday. Prior to the talk, I predicted:
One, that Skiff will provide a strawman version of evolutionary theory (heck, and science itself) as he did last time I saw him speak... Two, that Skiff will assert or imply that evolution…
March 2, 2007
I was planning on writing up this aforementioned talk for this afternoon's post, but there ended up being so much to say about it (and not enough time, alas, as I have to run to a faculty meeting shortly) that I'll save it until Monday. (I *will* say that it was jaw-dropping, but not in a good way…
March 2, 2007
Apologies for the radio silence this week. The weather has been crazy here and power was off over the weekend, during which, unfortunately, I was also trying to move into a new house (moving during an ice storm: not recommended, by the way). Then I got into a fight with some of our downed tree…
February 23, 2007
Via From Right 2 Left, I see that U of Iowa physics professor. Fred Skiff, will be speaking on intelligent design next week:
At the next "Finding God at Iowa" Lunch Forum, Fred Skiff, University of Iowa professor of physics and astronomy, will speak on the theory of intelligent design. The forum…
February 22, 2007
As I mentioned, I spent the latter part of last week and the weekend in San Francisco at the annual AAAS meeting. Unlike most meetings I attend, this one wasn't a research-heavy meeting, so instead I went to hear more about science education (and of course, how to improve it), as well as to find…
February 21, 2007
...I'm sure they'll be happy to see that Gambia's president is curing AIDS:
From the pockets of his billowing white robe, Gambia's president pulls out a plastic container, closes his eyes in prayer and rubs a green herbal paste onto the rib cage of the patient -- a concoction he claims is a cure…
February 20, 2007
So, I'm back from AAAS, and starting to catch up on everything. The conference flew by, and I still have a few posts in the wings on the evolution symposium that took place on Friday, as well as some other tidbits from sessions I attended. Overall, I thought the conference was very good from a…
February 16, 2007
So, I'm here in San Francisco at AAAS, and have had the pleasure of hanging out with Janet (who I met previously), John, and Jeremy (who I'd not). I'll hopefully have a post up tomorrow on the session I just got out of, discussing evolution education and grassroots activism. It's been a lot of…
February 14, 2007
Find the best science writing of the fortnight over at Lab Cat.
February 14, 2007
...some vintage posters raising awareness about the other VD: venereal disease.
(Click on them to go to the original site). A few more highlights below the fold...
And this one, which is better appreciated at larger size so you can read the print:
There are 20 posters in all, plus this…
February 13, 2007
Over at Am I a woman scientist? I ran across this post discussing crying in the workplace. I'd never given much consideration to the issue previously, but there are several thought-provoking posts and articles on the topic.
First, let me take a step back to a post Am I a woman scientist? linked…
February 13, 2007
Check out this week's medical blogging roundup over at Chronic Babe, and bring your sweet tooth.
February 12, 2007
I'll try to get the third installment on normal flora "basics" up tomorrow, before I spend Wednesday at Darwin Day events here in Iowa City and then the next few days at AAAS in San Francisco. In the meantime, in case you've not come across it yet, John Wilkins has been keeping an updated list of…
February 12, 2007
In honor of Darwin Day, Evil Monkey brings news of an essay contest being sponsored by the Alliance for Science:
2007 National High School Essay Contest
Why would I want my doctor to have studied evolution? If you are a high school student in the United States, we want to hear your answer to that…
February 9, 2007
What's killing honey bees?
Something is wiping out honey bees across North America and a team of researchers is rushing to find out what it is.
What's being called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has now been seen in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida, Georgia and way out in California. Some bee…
February 8, 2007
So, I left off on Tuesday noting two things about our normal flora: 1) that in the big picture, we know hardly anything about them; and 2) that one reason we know so little about them is because we've never grown many of them in a laboratory setting--that is, we've never cultured them using our…
February 6, 2007
I mentioned in the Introduction to Microbiology and Infectious Disease that many people don't understand the difference between a commensal and a pathogenic organism. I also mentioned that I'd try to write something about microbial ecology. Since I just gave a lecture yesterday on normal human…
February 2, 2007
"Sheesh, kids today" generally is a phrase said to malign the young'ins, who are typically characterized as slothful video game junkies. This stereotype ticked me off when I was a teenager (ah, back in the day...) and I'm sure some teenagers today feel the same way. So just to help combat that…
February 2, 2007
Introduction to Microbiology and Infectious Disease
You and your normal flora, Part I
You and your normal flora, Part II
February 2, 2007
It's been awhile since I've written about HIV/AIDS denial on here. To be honest, the whole area has just burned me out a bit; it gets tiresome to even discuss issues with people who so fundamentally deny the basic tenets of microbiology and infectious disease epidemiology. But in my absence,…
February 1, 2007
Heart disease is still often considered a disease of men. Ask the average joe on the street, and they'll probably tell you that men die of heart attacks, and women die of breast cancer. Of course, this is incorrect. In fact, heart disease is the leading killer of women in America: 1 in 3 women…