Tara C. Smith
Associate Professor, lab rat (microbiologist/infectious disease epidemiologist) and occasional blogger, full-time nerd.
tsmith
Posts by this author
January 16, 2008
As I noted last week, Shelley mentioned a topic that's been brought up here a few times in the comments section: alternative theories for causes of the Black Plague (the devastating plague that ravaged Europe beginning in ~1347 and eventually killed more than a third of the population). Though…
January 16, 2008
Did Yersinia pestis really cause Black Plague? Part 1: Objections to Y. pestis causation
Did Yersinia pestis really cause Black Plague? Part 2: Examination of the criticisms
Did Yersinia pestis really cause Black Plague? Part 3: Paleomicrobiology and the detection of Y. pestis in corpses
Did…
January 15, 2008
Over at Evolgen, RPM notes an interesting study in PNAS, looking at antibiotic use and how it serves to drive the emergence and maintenance of antibiotic-resistant strains. The current paradigm for antibiotic use is to prescribe relatively high doses of drugs for a few days to a few weeks (or…
January 15, 2008
Some infectious agents, it seems, have been with us since the rise of humanity. Bacteria like E. coli or salmonella don't appear to have one moment enshrined in history where they first appeared on the scene. They've probably long been with us, causing disease sporadically but not spectacularly…
January 14, 2008
Every year, the folks over at Medgadget.com host the Medical Weblog Awards. I've been nominated a few times, and even did OK in the best new blog category a few years back. This year, I'm apparently nominated in the Best Clinical Weblog category--which, honestly, I don't think I fit into. So I…
January 14, 2008
Darwin Day is fast approaching, and we'll be celebrating with 2 and a half days' worth of festivities here in Iowa next month.
We'll kick off Thursday night, February 14th, with Dr. Massimo Pigliucci reading from his latest book at Live from Prairie Lights, with drinks and snacks following at a…
January 11, 2008
I'll have new posts up here next week, but meanwhile, over at Retrospectacle, Shelley's made this week plague week. She introduces the topic here, and next dishes about plague fashion. Also in the comments, it's asked:
I recently heard that there is some doubt now that the Black Death may not…
January 5, 2008
No, I've not dropped off the face of the earth. I'm currently here in rainy Los Angeles for a meeting with the WIRED SCIENCE/Correlations people, where I met up with fellow Correlations bloggers Clifford Johnson, Michael Tobis, and Sheril Kirshenbaum, as well as WIRED SCIENCE producer Damon…
December 30, 2007
As another Ebola outbreak simmers in Uganda (and appears to be increasing), I recently was in touch with Zoe Young, a water and sanitation expert with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF*, known in the US as Doctors without Borders), who was working in the Democratic Republic of Congo during the DRC…
December 21, 2007
It's been awhile since I wrote anything on influenza. It's certainly not that nothing interesting has happened recently--far from it, there are new stories on influenza out every day. Rather, there are just a lot of people out there covering it, and covering it well. However, it's been an…
December 17, 2007
In my field, many things that cause the average man-on-the-street to get a bit squeamish or squicked are rather commonplace. My own studies include two types of bacteria that are carried rectally in humans (and other animals), so I spend an absurd amount of time thinking about, well, shit, and…
December 10, 2007
Just a P.S.--if ignorance like Mike Huckabee's comments on HIV/AIDS drives you nuts, check out what Chris and Sheril (among others) have put together, calling for real debate on science and technology issues by the presidential candidates:
Given the many urgent scientific and technological…
December 10, 2007
Still playing end-of-year catch-up with grants and manuscripts so posting will be sporadic, but I'd be remiss not to mention this story regarding presidential candidate Mike Huckabee's past views on HIV/AIDS:
In 1992, Huckabee wrote, "If the federal government is truly serious about doing something…
December 4, 2007
I mentioned that the Discovery Institute was in Iowa yesterday, accusing Iowa State University (and specifically, professors in the Department of Physics and Astronomy) of conspiring against assistant professor Guillermo Gonzalez, an intelligent design advocate and fellow of the Discovery Institute…
November 30, 2007
Since its discovery, only a few countries have really been affected by Ebola. The virus has surfaced multiple times in the Democractic Republic of Congo, in Sudan, in Gabon, and now in Uganda. This country was last hit (and hit hard) by Ebola in 2000, when an outbreak there caused at least 425…
November 29, 2007
Over at Correlations, I have a post up describing the case of a Liberian immigrant who's been jailed in New York for the importation of bushmeat. She's arguing that to punish her for this is in violation of her first amendment right to freedom of religion. More at the link...
November 29, 2007
Like the gift that never stops giving, the Discovery Institute is taking its dog and pony show on the road, and heading right here to Iowa in order to plead (via press conference) Discovery Institute fellow Guillermo Gonzalez's case for tenure. You may recall the Iowa State assistant professor of…
November 28, 2007
Revere has been covering the situation in Indonesia regarding sharing of influenza viruses with the US and other countries. For those of you who don't follow these issues, Indonesia has been the country hardest hit thus far by H5N1 (113 cases and 91 deaths as of 11/12/07). However, while one…
November 28, 2007
Apologies for the lack of posting; been a busy fall here. I'll have a real post up later today; in the meantime, I'll note that the latest edition of Grand Rounds is up over at Prudence, M.D.
November 19, 2007
It still amazes me sometimes what viruses are capable of doing. I've written a number of times about one virus in particular, the human papilloma virus (HPV). This is the virus implicated in cervical cancer, and it also plays a role in head and neck cancers. There are a number of different…
November 18, 2007
Last month, I wrote an update on the strange cancer affecting Tasmanian devils--a tumor cell that's taken on a life of its own, and is spreading through the population as the animals fight. Now, via PZ comes something you can do to help--donate and help to save this species:
Help the Tasmanian…
November 16, 2007
Now that a proposed increase of funding to NIH has again been shot down, scientists have to once again face the reality of intense competition for very scarce funds.
However, the process of awarding research grants is, well, a bit crazy. Scientists work for months on a grant, drafting, revising…
November 15, 2007
Evil Monkey has the scoop.
November 15, 2007
Two recent stories highlight the good and the bad when it comes to infectious disease prevention.
The good
Death rates for vaccine-preventable diseases are at an all-time low:
The study, by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, and published in The Journal of the American…
November 14, 2007
WIRED Science host Ziya Tong reveals how she ended up where she is today, and the secrets behind her success. Check out her post to see how spamming, melting make-up, Jane Goodall, and Michael Jackson have played into her career trajectory.
(And if you've not watched WIRED Science yet, tonight…
November 13, 2007
Over the summer, I wrote about Vinay Chakravarthy, a doctor of South Asian descent who had been recently diagnosed (at the age of 28 and fresh out of medical school) with leukemia and was in need of a bone marrow transplant. However, as Razib and others noted, the odds of him finding a match…
November 12, 2007
... (L-R) Scienceblogs' own rabblerouser, PZ Myers; Phil Plait of Bad Astronomy; myself; and birthday boy Evil Monkey, along with a host of other science bloggers and readers (including some self-identified in the comments in PZ's and Phil's posts)? A nerdalicious Saturday evening in DC, that's…
November 12, 2007
While I'm taking care of some housekeeping, I'll mention the final numbers for the Scienceblogs Donors Choose 2007 challenge. In 2006, we raised collectively just over $34,000 (which included $10K from Seed media). This year, we extended the drive a bit, upped our individual blog goals, and Janet…
November 9, 2007
Tuberculosis in humans is most commonly caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, a slow-growing, waxy, rod-shaped bacterium. Transmitted primarily via the air when an infected individual coughs or sneezes, it's estimated that a third of the world is infected with this agent, which causes…