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
April 6, 2006
I've touched on the broad issue of "cultural practices" that can lead to emerging diseases in a few posts already (such as farming practices and cockfighting and avian influenza, or petting zoos and bacterial diseases), but today I'm going to go into a bit more detail with the specific example of…
April 6, 2006
Again on the zoonoses topic, today's BBC news has an article about cats and "bird flu" (referencing this article in Nature).
The first report of domestic cats dying of the H5N1 virus emerged in Thailand in 2004 when 14 out of 15 cats in a household near Bangkok fell ill and died.
One had eaten…
April 6, 2006
Last week's Nature had an article on yet another example of poor design: mitochondrial diseases. Mitochondria are the organelles within eukaryotic cells that provide the energy for the cells. Once free-living bacteria, the precursors of mitochondria were engulfed by larger cells billions of…
April 6, 2006
...is up over at Complex Medium, so head over there to check out the best posts on our abundant little friends from the past 2 weeks. Lots of good stuff, but as Ewen notes, it's a bit bacteria-heavy...where are all the virology folks out there, huh?
April 5, 2006
As I mentioned in previous posts, the emergence of new infectious--especially zoonotic--disease isn't limited to poor countries. Exact numbers vary depending on whose estimates you use, but this source puts the number of pet dogs in the United States alone at roughly 63 million, with over 76…
April 5, 2006
...so says scientist.
Rare conditions could have conspired to create hard-to-see ice on the Sea of Galilee that a person could have walked on back when Jesus is said to have walked on water, a scientist said today.
The results suggest temperatures dropped to 25 degrees Fahrenheit (-4 degrees…
April 5, 2006
...but just haven't had the time to do more extensive write-ups. So, a mini carnival of good stuff:
First, as other Sciencebloggers have noted, Seed is sponsoring a writing contest. $1000 dollar top prize and publication in Seed to the winner.
Cervantes at Stayin' Alive writes about the cost of…
April 5, 2006
I've not done this before 'cause I didn't want it to sit and be all pitiful without any comments, but occasionally I'll get comments in a thread that are off-topic, or ask questions about something else I've not written about, etc. Obviously I fill this blog with topics that are interesting to me…
April 4, 2006
In addition to all the science of H5N1, several presentations were given discussing communication between scientists and the public (or those who more often communicate with the public--science journalists). As I've written on here before, it's not an easy dance to figure out, for a variety of…
April 4, 2006
I mentioned last week that Iowa's suffering from a large outbreak of mumps. An update, from the March 30th Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report:
In the United States, since 2001, an average of 265 mumps cases (range: 231--293 cases) have been reported each year,* and in Iowa, an average of five…
April 4, 2006
Busy yesterday and today, but I saw a brief mention of a study yesterday that Orac has discussed in more detail today. The study questions whether an "autism epidemic," as frequently cited in the anti-vaccination literature, has really occurred in the United States or not.
So, in nearly all…
April 4, 2006
...can be found over at UroStream, presented as a patient history. Clever.
Don't forget also to send entries for Animalcules to Ewen by tomorrow--next edition will go live Thursday at Complex Medium.
April 3, 2006
As conferences covering both emerging infectious diseases and emerging zoonoses, influenza H5N1 was obviously a prominent topic of discussion. The big question wasn't really answered--what is the most important mechanism of spread from country-to-country: wild birds, or domestic poultry? The…
April 3, 2006
Occasionally when discussing HIV and folks like Duesberg, etc., I'll get a question along the lines of, "do these people deny the entire germ theory of disease?" Certainly Duesberg has written that he doesn't believe HPV causes cervical cancer, or prions cause kuru, for example, and many of the…
April 2, 2006
Joseph over at Immunoblogging has two posts on Mycobacterium bovis and gives a potential answer to Dave S.'s question here. In post one, Joseph notes (after the fold):
It's interesting to note that Mycobacterium bovis, which infects farmed animals dates back roughly to the time we domesticated…
April 1, 2006
At the risk of starting an infectious cancer/HIV/AIDS fight over at The Loom, I'll point your attention to Carl's post discussing, well, those topics here. He elaborates on a study I mentioned here but didn't delve very much into the science. Zimmer does--check out the link to find out how he…
March 31, 2006
Orac just mentioned that Phil's Bad Astronomy blog was featured in Science's Netwatch section. John Hawks got plugged last week, and Pandas Thumb received a notice last November (mentioning this story I wrote and cross-posted to Panda's Thumb, even). And of course, Effect Measure were spotlighted…
March 31, 2006
So far this week, I've mostly been talking in generalities--the introductions to the topic, or how the animals we eat or other types of human behavior can put us at greater risk for the emergence of such diseases. Today I want to talk about a more specific example: an ongoing outbreak of a virus…
March 31, 2006
Just a reminder to submit your entries to me or Ewen at Complex Medium, who will be hosting next week's carnival. He's promised to make it better than Police Academy V--who can miss with a guarantee like that?
March 31, 2006
So, PZ was apparently collecting Jesus pictures or something. (Yeah, I'm late to the game--blame it on Atlanta). I've had this one on my camera for awhile and keep meaning to upload it: guess this is as good as a time as any. From my very own parents' house (that used to creep me out when I was a…
March 30, 2006
I mentioned in part 2 of the introduction the role that war plays in the emergence and transmission of infectious disease. Accurate numbers are difficult to come by, but currently, it's estimated that approximately 120 million people worldwide are affected in some way by conflict. In 2003, it…
March 30, 2006
Saw this awhile ago on Science and Politics, but it keeps getting pushed down the line of my entries. See what a panel of high-schoolers has to say about creationism, intelligent design, and evolution. I guess it should be considered a small victory that at least the word "evolution" isn't…
March 29, 2006
...and where better to go than Wal-Mart?
And I thought my spring break trips as an undergrad were dull...
March 29, 2006
From the Bushmeat Task Force:
In Africa, forest is often referred to as 'the bush', thus wildlife and the meat derived from it is referred to as 'bushmeat'. This term applies to all wildlife species, including threatened and endangered, used for meat including: elephant; gorilla; chimpanzee and…
March 29, 2006
From this essay (via The Island of Doubt):
Convictions are important things. We do not want our children to have minds so open that their brains fall out. On the other hand, certainty is conviction absent humility. Certainty is intolerant. It is absolute. It knows the answers and will not…
March 28, 2006
Just FYI, yesterday's New York Times has a piece by Denise Grady and Gina Kolata on avian influenza: How Serious Is the Risk?
March 28, 2006
I mentioned previously that a new virus had been found that's associated with prostate cancer. Several ongoing studies are finding tons of new species of microbes, and we're learning more about the diversity that is around us every day. And though most of these newly-discovered organisms won't…
March 28, 2006
A giant new Grand Rounds is up over at NHS blog doctor. I believe a new Tangled Bank is in the works as well.