tsmith

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Tara C. Smith

Associate Professor, lab rat (microbiologist/infectious disease epidemiologist) and occasional blogger, full-time nerd.

Posts by this author

March 13, 2006
Since they say this more succintly than I probably could, I'll just quote from the email I received: AAAS is providing educators with practical resources to meet the challenge of teaching evolution. For example, at a successful special event for local teachers during our Annual Meeting in February…
March 13, 2006
A bit busy today, so I'll direct you elsewhere for some good reading. First, afarensis is thinking about re-naming his blog Aetiology Jr. after writing another post on bacterial meta-genomics in the sea; Mike discusses the Republican War on Epidemiology; John has more about the candiru I…
March 12, 2006
Recall a few weeks ago, when I was discussing how a change in regulation in a single gene in Streptococcus pyogenes led to a huge change in phenotype? (I know you do--you probably have it memorized.) A new study shows a similar phenomenon's occurred during human evolution, and probably is the…
March 11, 2006
DarkSyde has a new interview up with Barbara Forrest, discussing the history of intelligent design, "the wedge," and how she became involved in all of it. You may also want to check out DemfromCT's post on what we don't know about "bird flu." What we don't know about H5N1 can fill a library. So…
March 11, 2006
Via Pharyngula, I found this site: the Schoepenhauer Awards. Man, I'm in love. Not only do they profile the intestinal roundworm, but they also discuss the Tasmanian tiger (one of my favorite extinct animals); the candiru, a parasitic catfish that enters body openings you'd rather not think…
March 10, 2006
Ed already highlighted it, but I wanted to draw more attention to this interview with Panda's Thumb contributor and author of the book "Unintelligent Design," Mark Perakh. Mark's life story is simply incredible (Siberian prison camps, teaching in several countries, and much more), but what was the…
March 10, 2006
Evil monkey's pissed off about how scientists are viewed and treated. To hell with the nerdy sterotypes, the unrealistic portrayals in the movies and TV. Who are we really? So who am I? I'm tenacious. I can be ground down but never stopped. Repeated setbacks fuel my desire to overcome an…
March 10, 2006
Or, y'know, the Mike Brown disaster? Think again. We don't need none o' that fancy learnin'! We'll just repeat our mistakes until people stop noticing. Besides, who needs someone actually qualified in a boring department like Homeland Security?
March 9, 2006
2 events of note: Iowa City's Cafe Scientifique is hosting an event Thursday, March 9th: Prof. Erika Lawrence Department of Psychology "Why some marriages succeed and others fail." Time: Thursday, 9 March 2006 5:00 - 6:00 PM Cottage Bakery and Cafe, 14 S. Linn St. Iowa City, IA 52240 Next…
March 9, 2006
Welcome to the third edition of Animalcules, complete with a top-secret birthday message for everyone's favorite thorn in the side of creationists, PZ Myers. (Or Meyers, or Meijers, or several other more creative mispellings, I'm sure). There have been several posts around the blogosphere…
March 9, 2006
Guess I should've held off an extra day on this post. Yesterday was blog against sexism day. Lots of excellent posts linked there if you're looking to spend several hours getting depressed, then pissed off, then ready to go out and kick some as over the state of affairs and the treatment of women…
March 8, 2006
Forgot to mention this earlier, so maybe I'll hold off on posting it until tomorrow afternoon to give people a chance to send entries. The third edition of Animalcules is supposed to go live tomorrow, so send me your links ASAP.
March 8, 2006
One final word on all the HIV stuff for now then I'm taking a break to get in some more interesting subject matter. I've started responding to this comment, but it's getting lengthy so I'm going to start it as a new post below the fold. Matt, Regarding being a "left vs. right" issue, who's…
March 8, 2006
Homo floresiensis (aka "the Hobbit"> was one of those discoveries that made a huge splash, created a lot of controversy, and has been out of the news for awhile now. Wondering what's going on, and what's ahead? Sciam Observations has a bit of an update--and expects more later this year. This…
March 8, 2006
Not the Batman kind--the influenza kind. I received a questionnaire yesterday from ABC news. Apparently, they're doing a story on pandemic influenza preparation. Included were questions like, "What would you recommend to those individuals who are trying to obtain antiviral medications for their…
March 7, 2006
So, Chad posted a link to this post last week. As a woman in science myself, I have to say I don't 100% buy this argument: Most people go to work primarily in order to earn a paycheck. Workers prefer a higher salary to a lower salary. Jobs in science pay far less than jobs in the professions…
March 7, 2006
This week's Grand Rounds, a collection of medical-themed blogging, is up over at Emergiblog.
March 6, 2006
I meant to plug this last week: RPM at Evolgen has a post on microbial diversity in the gut, referencing a new Cell paper. I was going to write up this paper on MRSA within amoebae, but haven't had time. I still might do a more extensive commentary, but Joseph has a few words on it.
March 6, 2006
Okay, my morning meeting went a bit faster than expected so I can sneak in a quick post before my first lecture. We were discussing infectious causes of cancer here. I received an email stating how "inconsistent" I was by asserting that a disease could be infectious but not contagious. So,…
March 6, 2006
Just a reminder that there will be another edition of Animalcules this week; the last one here at Aetiology for awhile before it hits the road. Send me your submissions by Wednesday evening. Grand Rounds will also go live tomorrow at Emergiblog; check the link for submission info. Teaching this…
March 5, 2006
Lest those who support the vaccine-autism link accuse me of ignoring this by not jumping on it immediately, I want to briefly point out a new study suggesting autism rates decline as thimerosal has been removed from childhood vaccines. From the press release: A new study shows that autism may be…
March 5, 2006
I'm late. Wampum's opened voting for the 2005 Koufax awards. Aetiology is up for best new blog and best series (more on that after the break). Panda's Thumb is up for best blog community, and many other Sciencebloggers are up in various categories. Hope you've been checking them out over the…
March 5, 2006
...by Christians. I've mentioned before that I'm on the Answers in Genesis mailing list. In addition to the junk mail it gets me (as described in the post linked above), I also get their monthly newsletter, describing new events in the "culture war" and asking for money. This month's version is…
March 3, 2006
Somehow I missed this post from 10,000 Birds on alcids--"penguinis of the Northern Hemisphere"--when compiling this week's Tangled Bank. So go belatedly check it out, and I'll add it to the TB post for posterity.
March 3, 2006
The Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) has released a list of the six drug-resistant pathogens scientists should be most concerned about. The AATF (Antimicrobial Availability Task Force) created a list of high-priority bacterial and fungal pathogens on the basis of ⩾1 of the…
March 2, 2006
How women evolved blond hair to win cavemen's hearts Academic researchers have discovered that women in northern Europe evolved with light hair and blue eyes at the end of the Ice Age to stand out from the crowd and lure men away from the far more common brunette. First, I'll note that I've not…
March 2, 2006
Well, Orac got dragged into it. While I only briefly mentioned RFK Jr.'s nonsense here, Orac's done a more thorough rebuttal here, complete with lots of links to his older posts on thimerosal/autism. And like PZ, political lines don't stop me from pointing out mistakes either.
March 1, 2006
Wall of Distrust in Nigeria Bird Flu Fight The peasant farm hands were deeply suspicious as they watched the police marksmen trying to control bird flu kill 168 ostriches the farm had reared over eight years. Days later, when the 160 workers were invited for tests to see if they, too, were infected…
March 1, 2006
Welcome to Tangled Bank #48! Tons of good stuff to share with you today. I considered a number of themes, including the invisible theme (aka, none at all), but decided on "songs by groups that may have been in my iPod in high school (if iPods had been invented then)." Not that I have an iPod…
February 28, 2006
This week's Grand Rounds is up over at A Chance to Cut is a Chance to Cure. Ones that caught my eye: Dr. Andy's discussion of mandatory vaccination; Flea on gambling with meningitis; Orac's tales of surgery (warning: not quite what you think); a depressing STD tale over at The blog that ate…