Tara C. Smith
Associate Professor, lab rat (microbiologist/infectious disease epidemiologist) and occasional blogger, full-time nerd.
tsmith
Posts by this author
February 1, 2007
I've mentioned a few times the work of Ignaz Semmelweis in preventing "childbed fever" in new mothers. To recap:
Semmelweis was a physician in Vienna in the 1840s, with an interested in "childbed fever," a leading cause of mortality in women who'd given birth. During this time, he noticed that the…
January 31, 2007
Slipped my mind that this was today, but check out what others have been blogging about in the latest edition of Tangled Bank at Ouroboros.
January 31, 2007
I suppose everyone has someone who they consider an embarrassment to their alma mater. I can probably think of a dozen just off the top of my head regarding my undergraduate institution (including a number of politicians who shall remain nameless). However, one who really sticks in my craw is the…
January 30, 2007
Readers who are regulars at Effect Measure or Deltoid will be familiar with the opinions of attorney and author Michael Fumento. Fumento considers himself an avian flu "skeptic," and recently issued a "challenge" (the title, "My avian flu challenge to the leftist bird-brained squawkers", might…
January 29, 2007
You can find it over at Unintelligent Design. Had a busy weekend and am teaching and in meetings today, but I'll have some new material up tomorrow.
January 26, 2007
Speaking of microbiology basics, along comes an article in the San Diego Union-Tribune about the petri dish, a staple of microbiology labs everywhere:
Before 1877, scientists exploring the nature and mechanics of microscopic life had a real problem. Bacteria used for study were typically cultured…
January 25, 2007
Like most fields, microbiology is one filled with jargon. Many laymen don't even realize the differences between a bacterium and a virus, much less the smaller differences between, for example, a pathogenic versus a commensal organism. So, while I haven't decided yet exactly what I might write…
January 25, 2007
Measles deaths down 60 percent in six years
Though we tend to think of measles as a mere childhood disease here in the U.S.--a nuisance more than anything--this is a reminder that worldwide, it's still a significant cause of morbidity and mortality. To counter this, a mass vaccine campaign was…
January 24, 2007
I've previously mentioned a bacterial pathogen called Acinetobacter baumannii (a bit more information here), and Mike has discussed it rather frequently. A. baumannii is ordinarilly a commensal bacterium--one that may live on the skin of healthy people for many years without ever causing disease…
January 23, 2007
As I described previously in this post, war and disease are inextricably intertwined:
War and its concomitant devastation and social upheaval leaves its victims at an increased risk of disease transmission to begin with due to poor sanitation, collapse of public health and medical facilities and…
January 22, 2007
An essential piece of trivia: what bacterium was named after a George Lucas invention?
An investigator discovers a new bacterium that lives in the mitochondria in tick ova. Can you guess what Star Wars organisms they're named after?
Soon, Lo and his colleagues began looking for a name for their…
January 17, 2007
Via Jonah comes this (depressing, as he notes) NY Times article on what else we could've bought with $1.2 trillion:
For starters, $1.2 trillion would pay for an unprecedented public health campaign -- a doubling of cancer research funding, treatment for every American whose diabetes or heart…
January 17, 2007
The January edition of Animalcules will be hosted here again next Thursday, January 18th. Send your entries to me: aetiology AT gmail DOT com. I'm still looking for hosts for future editions as well, so drop me a line if you'd like to help out there.
[Additionally, check out the latest Tangled…
January 16, 2007
Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is one of those nebulous diseases that's really more of a diagnosis of exclusion than anything else. As the name suggests, it's characterized by overwhelming fatigue--often so much so that patients can barely get out of bed--as well as a number of non-specific…
January 16, 2007
coturnix brings news of the release of the science blogging anthology that he's spent the last few weeks compiling. After taking over 200 entries from science blogs all over the net, he and other judges culled it down to 50 posts (ncluding this one of mine), and the book is available here just in…
January 15, 2007
Well, we missed the ice storms that hit a few other Sciencebloggers, but we did get a bit of this:
My kids, of course, were clamoring to play in it this morning as I rudely shipped them off to school (the nerve!); meanwhile, I'm realizing I don't even have snowpants and boots that fit them…
January 13, 2007
Go vote for your favorite! Voting ends Sunday at midnight (PST).
Additionally, the Koufax Awards nominations are open. For those unfamiliar, these are for:
The Koufax Awards are named for Sandy Koufax, one of the greatest left handed pitchers of all time. They are intended to honor the best blogs…
January 12, 2007
As Chad mentioned, in our super-triple-secret Scienceblogs hidey hole, we've been kicking around the idea of writing posts on some basic concepts in our respective fields of expertise. However, after studying this stuff for years and years and years, it's not always easy for us (well, OK, for me…
January 12, 2007
The January edition of Animalcules will be hosted here again next Thursday, January 18th. Send your entries to me: aetiology AT gmail DOT com. I'm still looking for hosts for future editions as well, so drop me a line if you'd like to help out there.
January 11, 2007
In yesterday's post regarding the current outbreak of Rift Valley Fever in Kenya, I noted:
...while there's little people in the area can do about periodic flooding, scientists are actively examining the relationship between weather and RVF outbreaks. This hopefully will prove useful to predict--…
January 11, 2007
So I see from other blog siblings that it's National Delurking Week. Aetiology has been around now for a year and a half (and just over a year here at Scienceblogs), and I'm thrilled to have a good group of regular commenters, but I never know quite how to answer when people ask who reads my blog…
January 10, 2007
So this week's American Astronomical Meeting is the current (as I type this, anyway) Buzz in the Blogosphere. Not being an astronomer, though, I'm wondering who's heading to another upcoming meeting...AAAS (that would be American Association for the Advancement of Science) in San Francisco, Feb.…
January 10, 2007
When it comes to hemorrhagic fevers, Ebola and Marburg tend to get the lions' share of the press. Both are highly fatal, both can cause people to die in excruciating ways, and both have come to represent somewhat our fear of and fascination with emerging exotic diseases. However, as I've…
January 9, 2007
This is bizarre....White rats pop up in toilets
Residents of a neighborhood next to the University of Arizona say small, live white rats have been swimming through sewer pipes and into their toilets.
Making it from the sewer into someone's toilet is a difficult trip. A 4-inch pipe runs from the…
January 9, 2007
Heavy underdog Florida annihilates Ohio State 41-14
Sorry, Grandpa. Maybe next year...
January 8, 2007
When people think of Iowa, many of them think of our agriculture (for good reasons). Obviously, it's big business here. We ranked first in the nation in production of corn, soybeans, eggs, and pork in 2005. Indeed, population-wise, hogs here outnumber humans by more than 5 to 1. This is one…
January 5, 2007
From the Seed mothership: Cancer is due to 'fate', Britons believe
More than a quarter of people believe that fate alone will determine whether they get cancer, not their lifestyle choices, according to a survey conducted by charity Cancer Research UK.
The poll of more than 4,000 adults across the…
January 5, 2007
Gina Kolata has an interesting article from Wednesday's New York Times, discussing education and longevity.
James Smith, a health economist at the RAND Corporation, has heard a variety of hypotheses about what it takes to live a long life -- money, lack of stress, a loving family, lots of…
January 4, 2007
I ran across this story study linking breast cancer protection to housework while browsing Scienceblogs briefly over the break (GrrlScientist mentioned it here), but hadn't had a chance until now to read through the actual publication. As usual, I'm late; Orac has a good overview, as well as some…
January 4, 2007
Check out all the categories and nominees here. Aetiology was nominated so of course I'd appreciate a vote or two just so I don't get totally creamed, but other favorites are there as well, including fellow ScienceBloggers Effect Measure, Dr. Charles, and Orac, as well as other favorites of mine…