Tara C. Smith
Associate Professor, lab rat (microbiologist/infectious disease epidemiologist) and occasional blogger, full-time nerd.
tsmith
Posts by this author
October 3, 2006
Orac has a post up on this new JAMA paper as well. He brings up some better examples than the one I gave:
Does anyone in this day and age still believe that smoking doesn't cause lung cancer? The epidemiological evidence of the association is bulletproof. However, the majority of smokers don't…
October 2, 2006
Ah, another day, another paper for the anti-HIV establishment to glom onto and misrepresent.
Last week's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association published this paper examining the relationship between HIV load and CD4 T-cell decline:
Context Plasma human immunodeficiency virus (…
September 29, 2006
Nina Plank, the author of the NY Times article I commented on in this post, stopped by to comment. Rather than just having this lost in the comments to a week-old post, I wanted to take a moment and quickly address two of her points (with potentially a follow-up post next week when I have a bit…
September 29, 2006
Via Dean and Science, Just Science comes this story about a new group trying to get ID into class in the UK:
Parents are being encouraged to challenge their children's science teachers over what they are explaining as the origins of life.
An organisation called Truth in Science has also sent…
September 28, 2006
While I've been out, missed highlighting a few carnivals:
Grand Rounds 3.1
Tangled Bank #63
Skeptics' Circle #44
September 26, 2006
I was travelling over the weekend and I'm incredibly busy up through Wednesday, so new material from me will have to wait until later in the week. In the meantime, I'll point you to a stellar post I wanted to highlight last week, from Revere on H5N1 and the evolution ov virulence, and another…
September 22, 2006
The more I read about this, the worse it gets. In addition to the links I mentioned yesterday, Laurie Garrett mentioned she's been covering this for years. One example is this piece from this past June.
One of the newly charged Bulgarians, Smilian Tachev, an engineer, told Bulgarian journalists…
September 21, 2006
That's certainly the claim in a new New York Times editorial (via The Frontal Cortex). The author, Nina Planck (author of Real Foods: What to Eat and Why), claims that it's as easy as just feeding cattle grass, and poof!--E. coli O157 will vanish.
More on this and why organic farming won't…
September 21, 2006
I write a lot here about science denial, and it's been pointed out previously that denying that HIV causes AIDS, for instance, is deadly quackery. Now, via Nature write and blogger Declan Butler and Nature magazine comes news of another form of science denial revolving around HIV: the 7-year…
September 20, 2006
The seventh chapter of Wells' book could be summed up in a single sentence: "biology doesn't need no steeekin' evolution!" Wells argues that, because medicine and agriculture were already doing just fine prior to Darwin's publication of Origin, clearly then, these fields (and others) haven't…
September 20, 2006
David over at Orcinus has an excellent post reminding about the anniversary of the that passed largely without mention, and its stark contrast to the anniversary of 9/11.
...today also marks the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks that followed -- the anthrax letters mailed to a variety…
September 20, 2006
Everyone's favorite sexy geek is 29 today. Stop on over and drop some birthday wishes for the youngin'.
September 19, 2006
Matt has the scoop.
Women in science and engineering are hindered not by lack of ability but by bias and "outmoded institutional structures" in academia, an expert panel reported today. The panel, convened by the National Academy of Sciences, said that in an era of global competition the nation…
September 19, 2006
Alaskan vacation edition! Check out not only the week's best medical blogging, but also some lovely pics from the author's home state.
September 19, 2006
From the New York Times:
The last of the anthrax-laced letters was still making its way through the mail in late 2001 when top Bush administration officials reached an obvious conclusion: the nation desperately needed to expand its medical stockpile to prepare for another biological attack.
The…
September 18, 2006
From NPR's Weekend Edition comes The Origin of Species song by Chris Smither (right around the 7:00 mark).
September 18, 2006
And who said spinach was boring?
If the ongoing E. coli outbreak due to spinach has done one thing, it's highlight the mystery that revolves around Salinas, California:
The sunny Salinas Valley holds a dark mystery: Why, in the past decade, have nine Escherichia coli outbreaks been linked to…
September 18, 2006
It seems like every other story that comes out about H5N1 contradicts the previous one. I've blogged previously about some reasons to think that the diagnosed cases of H5N1 are only the tip of the iceberg (see here, here, and here, for instance). Though there I present some evidence to suggest…
September 16, 2006
Science blogger Eva of Eastern blot has news that an article she wrote on the topic of science blogs, which includes interviews with PZ and Carl (in addition to myself and others), is now online. The article is titled, "Who benefits from science blogging?", and the .pdf can be found directly here…
September 15, 2006
Okay, so you've probably seen this guy on the new Mac commercials. He's the one who plays the PC, the nerdy guy with glasses. He's also a contributor to the Daily Show, where he first appeared to talk about his book, The Areas of my Expertise (website), apparently, spending a disproportionate…
September 15, 2006
I mentioned Mike also wrote on the E. coli outbreak. Additionally, Carl, who's working on an upcoming book on E. coli (woo hoo!) also has more, including a bit on the evolution of E. coli O157:H7 (while Mike talks about E. coli in general and the bad rap it sometimes gets). Check 'em out.
September 15, 2006
E. coli outbreak traced to tainted spinach
An outbreak of E. coli in eight states has left at least one person dead and 50 others sick, federal health officials said Thursday in warning consumers nationwide not to eat bagged fresh spinach.
The death occurred in Wisconsin, where 20 others were…
September 15, 2006
For all you micro-oriented folks, don't forget that the latest edition of Animalcules will be up Sunday the 17th at Viva la evolucion!. Send your enties to me (aetiology AT gmail DOT com) or Salva (vivalaevolucion AT hotmail DOT com) by tomorrow (Saturday).
September 14, 2006
The new vaccine against the human papilloma virus is something I've discussed a time or ten here. Reaction to the vaccine by many religious groups has morphed with time, from outright resistance to a more common stance right now that they're accepting of the vaccine, but don't want it to be…
September 14, 2006
Janet hosts the latest edition of the Skeptics' Circle. Don't let the cuteness dampen your critical thinking skills.
September 13, 2006
You may or may not be familiar with the name Ignaz Semmelweis. It's not one that's typically taught to school children, like Koch or Pasteur may be. He even tends to get glossed over in upper-level biology courses. But Semmelweis was an important figure in the history of microbiology (indeed,…
September 13, 2006
It's fun, games, and science blogging over at The Hairy Museum of Natural History, where the latest Tangled Bank is hosted.
September 12, 2006
The best of this week's medical blogging can be found at Diabetes Mine, with a "back to med school" theme.