Chimp retirement plan.
Nature echoes the call for the National Institutes of Health to create a humane retirement plan for their primate research assistants: Last December, a report […]
epidemiology
Parasites linked to suicides.
Scientific American’s “Science Sushi” blog rolls up some recent research connecting cat-parasite Toxoplasma gondii with human suicides: in Denmark, serum antibody levels for Toxoplasma gondii […]
Mother’s milk really is safe – it kills HIV.
New Scientist makes one more argument for breast-feeding, with research that shows breast milk seems to wipe out the virus that causes AIDS: Previous research […]
I can honestly conceive of nothing less pleasant than this.
Discover launches a thousand new phobia cases with their expose (and I cannot do better than their headline here) Hidden Epidemic: Tapeworms in the Brain: […]
Polio spreads.
BBC says the disease, once thought practically eradicated, is now moving out into China from Pakistan: Polio has been found in China for the first […]
Measles rising.
The aptly named PLoS blog “The Panic Virus” brings together a few disturbing strands of information about the anti-vaccination movement and the growing threat of […]
The Soul of the Zombie Ant.
National Geographic has some creepy new insights into one of nature’s creepiest reproductive strategies. The zombie ants – insects whose brains have been hijacked by […]
Science Art: Western Equine Encephalitis Virus Taken With Cryo-Electron Microscope
This is the infectious microbe (alive? not alive? who knows?) that causes Western equine encephalitis. It’s a deadly virus. I can remember when they said […]
What infection looks like.
New Scientist has microscopic video of what malaria looks like bursting into a blood cell: Jake Baum at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of […]
Mutant mosquitoes fight “breakbone fever.”
The Miami Herald reports on a new front line in a genetic war against insect-borne disease: Researchers at Oxitec Limited, an Oxford-based company, created sterile […]
Fear the superbug. Fear it.
Wired is feeling… apprehensive… about the latest progress made by the “Indian superbug” gene: This week, I’m at ICAAC (the annual Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial […]
Dirtier. Happier. Smarter.
Science Daily makes me eager to get out in the woods and get dirty. Mostly, just to dig around in the fallen leaves, but also […]
DARPA wants Prophecy.
Wired’s Danger Room sees all, knows all, and reveals all – including the Pentagon’s plan to predict biological attacks by knowing all possible outcomes: They’re […]
Flu’s in your head.
BBC has an interesting report on the psychological dimensions of flu: While it seems obvious that we feel under-par when we are ill, Dr Harrison […]
Put the prescriptions down.
A new story on the AP wire backs up one of my hobby-horse beliefs. People are using way too many antibiotics, and it’s killing us: […]