The biological world lost one of its greatest thinkers on 30 December 2012. In comparing the work of Woese to the other greats, think of the contributions that Einstein, Curie, Bohr, Tesla and yes, even Darwin have made to our understanding. To hear Woese talk of his discovery check out the video on Microbeworld Video entitled Solving the Puzzle. It will be 18 minutes well spent. , https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/microbeworld-video/id120703592?mt=2

The biological world lost one of its greatest thinkers on 30 December 2012. In comparing the work of Woese to the other greats, think of the contributions that Einstein, Curie, Bohr, Tesla and yes, even Darwin have made to our understanding. To hear Woese talk of his discovery check out the video on Microbeworld Video entitled Solving the Puzzle. It will be 18 minutes wells spent. https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/microbeworld-video/id120703592?mt=2

Very interesting video. Important to watch if you are serious about getting into the podcast production.

If your interested in learning why Public Health Officials are worried about Swine Flu I encourage you to explore flu simulation game that was s created by the head of Virology, Professor Ab Osterhaus and his colleagues at the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands as part of an awareness campaign for H1N1. This game has it all. Microbiology, public policy and even goes so far as to explore the consequences of "throwing some money at the system". Enjoy, its addicting and what's more its accurate.

This is the second of Dr. Falkow's excellent lectures on Host-Pathogen Interactions. If you are interested in how microbes can trigger cancer this again is a must view. In this video Dr. Falkow presents our current understanding of the association of CagA, synthesized by some Helicobacter, can interact with the tight junctions of the eukarytoic cells resulting in changes in signaling and motility of those cells in a very approachable format.

If you are interested in the relationships between Microbes and humans, this is a great primer on this subject. Dr. Falkow presents outstanding overview of this complex topic. This is a must view for anyone interested in this subject.

Rory asks a great question. So what's the answer? The short one is crowding, the animals are living in very close proximity to people and the the infectious agents in the question have the ability to infect more than one species. Thus they spread easily amplifying their numbers and sometimes increase the ease with which they cause disease or its severity. So as the animal (including people) and/or insects shed the infectious agent, whether it be virus, bacteria or fungi, if the infectious agent has the ability to infect more than one species it spread easily within the community. Thus as the population density of animals and people increases the likelihood of the agent expanding and infecting additional animals and people increases and thus the outbreak expands. How can we protect ourselves today? Some of the the best solutions for the controlling the spread of infectious agents are simple and straight forward like washing your hands before interacting with food and your mucosal surfaces (eyes, nose, mouth) and by controlling the dispersal of the agent by coughing/sneezing into your shoulder. The other way, if available, is through immunization. The great disease that is no more, small pox, was eliminated from the face of the planet through vaccination.

Here is the link that gets you to the video.... http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2009/04/30/kaye.anatomy.of.a.sneeze.cnn?iref=videosearch How do you edit a link?

Linked worked... I checked... it plays a commercial first then the video. I linked it from the CNN source page...

Informative story. However, most interesting are the maps suggesting the potential path(s) that the virus has taken leaving Mexico. The maps are provocative and in the weeks to come we will see if the map model proves true. Must read for all students interested in the epi of this new virus.

Informative article by Laurie Garrett, author of the Coming Plague.