Credit NIAID   # 7314   Helen Branswell has the details today on a new study which appears in the Journal Science, that looks at the ability of the avian H7N9 virus – recently emerged in China – to infect and transmit among ferrets.   Ferrets are considered a reasonable mammalian substitute for humans when testing respiratory viruses because their lung physiology is similar, and because they cough and sneeze when infected, very much as humans do.   […]

I always get very anxious right before a big trip. Lately, (read: since graduating from NMSU with my master's and becoming a happy basement bum at my parent's house) I haven't had any stress in my life and I generally try to not be one to borrow trouble. But something about the few days prior to leaving on a major journey really winds me up. The excitement of everything to come. The concern that I'll forget something. The fear that I'll make a huge mistake and ruin part or all of […]

I can play Breaking the Law, slowly…or I can leave right now and you get nothing. 

  Dothan, Ala Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection # 7313   A story we’ve been following for a couple of days now (see here, here, and here) is an outbreak of an unknown respiratory illness in the Dothan, Alabama area that has resulted in at least two deaths.   Today, during a webcast press conference held by the Alabama Department of Public Health, public health officials announced that test results are back on 7 of the cases, and no unusual pathogens were […]

From the outside, the NIH is a huge sprawling pit of bureaucracy that somehow manages to fund science across the entire spectrum of biomedical research. From the inside, I’ve discovered that there are branches and offices, of which most scientists … Continue reading →