Tara C. Smith
Associate Professor, lab rat (microbiologist/infectious disease epidemiologist) and occasional blogger, full-time nerd.
tsmith
Posts by this author
August 2, 2006
I mentioned just last month the dearth of research into what really makes an influenza virus easily transmissible from host to host, noting:
If we had a better handle on the factors that caused an avian strain of influenza virus to be more efficiently transmitted among humans, then we could better…
August 2, 2006
In case you've not heard, several the pro-science candidates for the Kansas Board of Education were victorious in the primary election last night.
If current results hold, it looks like the creationists on the 10-member Kansas Board of Education have lost two seats in the Republican primary. The…
August 2, 2006
Check out the best science blogging over the past two weeks over at Science and Reason.
August 1, 2006
So, msnbc has a story about a waitress who was given her own--previously stolen--driver's license from a customer who was trying to prove she was 21.
The 22-year-old waitress, whose name was not released, called police last week and said she had been handed her own stolen driver's license by a…
August 1, 2006
Regular readers may recall me previously discussing Rebecca Culshaw (for reference, threads can be found here and here). She's a PhD mathematician who wrote two articles discussing her departure from her prior research, which focused on mathematical models of HIV infection. I pointed out in one…
August 1, 2006
This week's Grand Rounds is up over at Inside Surgery.
And while I'm carnival barking, I'll send out the first reminder about this month's Animalcules, the microbiology carnival, will be hosted August 17th at Snail's Tales. You can send submissions to snailstales AT earthlink DOT net.
July 31, 2006
Good timing. Just Friday we were discussing limits on biological knowledge, particularly in regard to bioterrorism and the potential for information to fall into the wrong hands (or be used for the "wrong" purposes). Today, msnbc.com has an article discussing this exact issue:
Eckard Wimmer…
July 31, 2006
I was busy over the weekend (and disgusted by the hot, nasty weather that will not die), so I don't have a lot on tap for today. Luckily, though, there's some interesting stuff elsewhere that's already written up--thoughtfully saving me some of the trouble.
I discuss the link between infectious…
July 31, 2006
Check out the latest edition of Pediatrics Grand Rounds over at Ringmaster Flea's Three-Ring Circus.
July 29, 2006
More fascinating topics I didn't get around to:
Orac disses a report linking Ipods to autism. Really. He also has the low-down on snake oil salesman Kevin Trudeau's unbelievable new book. You think having a few people on a blog deny the germ theory is bad; it's even worse when an author who'll…
July 28, 2006
Chuck Darwin posed a very good question here that I'm spinning off into a new discussion.
The work Taubenberger and others are doing on the evolution of influenza a century ago is fascinating and could very well be pertinent to prediciting future influenza virus genetic drift/shift, host-virus…
July 28, 2006
A reader sent me a link to this site, which contained a reprint of a story by CBS 47 in Jacksonville. Mostly, it was a repeat of the story I already discussed, but it added this tidbit of information:
The NPA teamed up with the Oklahoma State Department of Health to study the creepy crawlers.…
July 27, 2006
Somehow I missed this story in the June issue of Science:
...Jeffery Taubenberger of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) in Washington, D.C., said that RNA found in tissue samples from pneumonia patients who died in 1915 shows that the virus's hemagglutinin--an all-important coat protein…
July 27, 2006
So, over at the World's Fair, they've put together an unofficial ask a scienceblogger:
Are there any children's books that are dear to you, either as a child or a parent, and especially ones that perhaps strike a chord with those from a science sensibility? Just curious really. And it doesn't have…
July 26, 2006
Every couple of months, it seems, comes a new media story on Morgellons disease, a "mysterious ailment" in which
Most individuals with this disease report disturbing crawling, stinging, and biting sensations, as well as non-healing skin lesions, which are associated with highly unusual structures.…
July 26, 2006
I've not commented on the whole stem cell controversy. Though I follow the literature (and the news), others are much better-versed in the science (and the politics) than I am, so I've left it to them to comment on both aspects of the unfolding story. However, I saw this comment over at Framing…
July 25, 2006
This week's Grand Rounds, a roundup of the week's best medical blogging, is up over at Medical Humanities with a unique garden theme.
July 25, 2006
I've mentioned previously the potential role that mild or asymptomatic infections with influenza may play in transmission and evolution of the virus. Right now, most of our reports of H5N1 have been due to serious infections that caused a patient to seek medical care. These cases are the tip of…
July 24, 2006
Evolutionary biologists sometimes think we microbiology people have it easy. "No one doubts the germ theory!," they claim.
Au contraire, mes amis:
Do some research Tara. Then you will be ready to start from scratch again, forget the germ theory nonsense and become a real scientist.
And I bet…
July 24, 2006
I see Janet has a post series going on family + academic career. (Part 1; Part 2). I've written a bit on my own experience at the old blog (and I do mean "a bit;" it's much more of a Cliff notes version of events than Janet's), so I'm re-posting it here for another view from the trenches, so to…
July 24, 2006
Just wanted to point y'all to PZ's post on Gallagher's editorial (as he notes, he's much less generous than I am) and make a few clarifications:
1) Gallagher didn't coin the term "spiritual left;" that's lifted from Silver's book. I know many of the comments strongly disagreed with that term, and…
July 21, 2006
The lastest edition of Mendel's Garden, a genetics carnival, is up at Viva la Evolucion!
July 21, 2006
Via the Christian Science Monitor comes an article about the "Iron Science Teacher:"
Some of the best scientific experiments are the simplest. Think of Galileo dropping lead balls from the Leaning Tower of Pisa, or Archimedes working out the principle of specific gravity while lounging in his…
July 21, 2006
This week's Ask a science blogger question is:
If you could have practiced science in any time and any place throughout history, which would it be, and why?...
Discussion after the fold...
Several folks have already responded with the answer of "now," and I agree. I've said before that this is an…
July 21, 2006
Just a note, since yesterday's post on Gallagher generated a lot of comments. I have a few posts on tap today (well, really tomorrow, as I'm writing this Thursday evening), but they're all scheduled and I'm not near a computer (and won't be until late this afternoon). So should there be some blow…
July 20, 2006
The name "Richard Gallagher" may be familiar to some readers. Gallagher is the editor of The Scientist, and last year, somewhat naively suggested that the evolution/creation "debate" was actually a good thing (you can find the text of his editorial at this site). Both PZ and Jason Rosenhouse took…
July 19, 2006
I wrote here that pili--long, filamentous surface molecules involved in adhesion and bacterial "sex"--had recently been discovered in gram positive organisms; pecifically, in group A and B streptococci (Streptococcus pyogenes and Streptococcus agalactiae, respectively), using a genomics approach…
July 19, 2006
Check out the best science blogging from the past two weeks over at Salto sobrius. Included in the current carnival is a site that's new to me, VirologyBytes, and in particular this post (well, podcast) discussing just what a virus is. Unfortunately, I'm at a computer without speakers at the…