Dogs stymie the battle to wipe out guinea worm.
As Nature notes, we’ve almost eradicated guinea worm – a terribly infectious parasite – but the worm seems to be striking back in the form […]
epidemiology
Parasitic worm boosts human fertility.
The BBC has me wondering just how many worm-babies there are out there (like blackout babies or blizzard babies). Because being infected with this parasitic […]
Step aside HIV. Tuberculosis is now the deadliest infectious disease.
New Scientist reveals that, worldwide, more people died from TB than from AIDS: This year marks the deadline for the Millennium Development Goal of cutting […]
What makes tick-borne diseases so tough?
Nature tries to figure out why we’re not making the headway we should against Lyme, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and the rest of the tick-borne […]
A flu vaccine that really works. All the time.
Wired brings up the potential of a universal flu vaccine – and the problems getting one together: Today, independent teams reported in Science and Nature […]
Genetically modified mosquitoes swarm Brazilian city.
And, New Scientist points out, they’re here to help… because they breed fast and their young die too quickly to spread dengue fever: Millions of […]
Italian police pressure scientists investigating olive blight.
Nature uncovers just how hard it can be to do research when your subjects keep dying: In the past year, plant scientists at various institutes […]
Penicillin-resistant germ found – from more than a decade before penicillin was discovered.
New Scientist has more on WWI germ that can survive all kinds of modern medicines: Ernest Cable was a British soldier who died in 1915 […]
Vaccine-resistant polio discovered. Yeah, almost a nightmare scenario.
Science Daily reports on a bug that’ll be keeping some public health officials up nights: The global initiative to eradicate poliomyelitis through routine vaccination has […]
Manure fertilizer boosts antibiotic resistance… somehow.
Even, Nature explains, from cows that have never been around antibiotics. Something about cow manure runoff helps resistant bacteria grow in the soil: Because manure […]
CDC: Stop shipping that flu around!
Nature reports that the Centers for Disease Control have ceased all shipments of infectious disease pathogens until they can get them shipped right: Workers at […]
Gonorrhea is coming back.
The Verge is rolling out the red carpet to welcome back the clap: …[P]enicillin and various tetracyclines have all stopped working against the most prevalent […]
Komodo dragons’ lethal, bone-crushing jaws not all *that* dirty.
Discover Magazine tries to put the record straight, revealing that the supposedly septic-mouthed Komodo dragons have been getting a bad rap: But of all the […]
SONG: “Starts Beating”
SONG: “Starts Beating” (To download: double right-click & “Save As”) ARTIST: grant. SOURCE: Based on “Scientists build a biological pacemaker by injecting a modified virus […]
Secret vegetarian recruiting tool: tick bites!
Sci-News reveals one more weapon in the war on carnivores – tick bites that