Although my public health training focused on infectious diseases, I care about a wide range of public health issues. My job cuts across domains, and also personally I want people to be comprehensively healthy and not merely free from contagions. So when I saw that health-improving and potentially life-saving interventions were being labeled as child abuse and used as the sole grounds for investigating parents, I was baffled and dismayed. I don't understand how providing treatments which have demonstrated health … [Read more...] about Science Corner: When Normal Isn’t Normative
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Science Corner: Bug-Eat-Bug World
It has been said that it's a bug-eat-bug world. Although in the circle of life, it's probably more accurate to say that it's a bird-eat-bug world. No matter how you phrase it, nature is full of heterotrophic organisms that need to consume other organisms in order to survive. Being eaten can have a significant negative impact on your fitness (your reproductive success, not your ability to climb Mt Everest or run a marathon). At the end of the day, the organisms/species that have the largest number of healthy offspring … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Bug-Eat-Bug World
Science Corner: Only They Know the Difference
Maybe you remember the old Far Side cartoon with two jellyfish outhouses featuring (apparently) identical icons on their doors, the caption reading "Only they know the difference." I was reminded of that strip reading this paper about two closely-related goby species. As the paper details, humans can face challenges differentiating them without genetic analysis. The most diagnostic visual difference only emerges once the fish reach a certain size, making the identity of smaller fish more ambiguous. Yet the genetic … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Only They Know the Difference
Science Corner: A Planet of Viruses Book Review & Virus Appreciation
I don't know about you, but viruses have been on my mind a lot lately. One virus in particular, SARS-CoV-2 (a.k.a. COVID-19), continues to hold my attention way more than I would like it to. However, viruses are pretty amazing, and I learned to appreciate them when I read Carl Zimmer's book, A Planet of Viruses. Like everything I have read by Carl Zimmer, who writes a weekly science column for The New York Times, this short book is a fun read, and it doesn't require a background in biology, or any other science, to … [Read more...] about Science Corner: A Planet of Viruses Book Review & Virus Appreciation
Science Corner: Don’t Look Up at The Matrix
The release of Don't Look Up around Christmas and Epiphany seems like a gift to sermon writers. The film depicts celestial message of impending doom that too many refuse to look up and see. Well, you know who *did* look up? Some Magi, and what they saw heralded salvation, not doom, for the world. Of course, the film was topical for other reasons. When writer-director Adam McKay scripted the film pre-pandemic, he had no idea that reality was an a collision course with his comedy, forcing him to reportedly alter or cut … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Don’t Look Up at The Matrix