Well, someone in my post of a couple of days ago-post on last night’s event celebrating Hilary Putnam complained that I don’t give enough notice of all this good stuff. So, as usual around here, the beatings continue until morale improves…
…which is something of an apology for the fact that I’m only now mentioning that at 5 p.m. Eastern time I’ll be talking to Maryn McKenna on my monthly science-radio-web/podcast, Virtually Speaking Science (where I’m one of several hosts as we inch our way to regular weekly episodes). (You’ll be able to pick up the podcast later at that link, or on iTunes, having searched for Virtually Speaking Science.)
Maryn, for those of you who have for some odd reason not glued yourself to her blog Superbug, or immersed yourself in her book by the same name, is the leading journalist working in the US on problems of antibiotic resistance, infectious disease and similar sources of gnawing (and occasionally acute) anxiety. We’ve talked before, but, sadly, there’s always more scary bug stuff to talk about.
This time, our focus will be on an under-reported outbreak of (likely) Totally Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (TDR – TB) and on the H7N9 flu story out of China. But we’ll no doubt talk about antibiotics in agriculture and the way agribusiness and the tocsin of cheap food is posing such a threat. Should be, dare I say it, fun. Or at least interesting. Or perhaps just terrifying.
Oh — and as for that stray thought. Am I the only one wondering whether The Pet Goat will have a place of honor in Wee Bush’s presidential library?
Thought not.
ETA: Here’s a nice bit of reporting on potentially untreatable gonorrhea appearing in the US. I’ll be asking Maryn about this too.
Image: Robert Hooke, Flea, in Micrographia, 1665
Certified Mutant Enemy
Apparently this is all proof the universe is ruled by kind and loving God….
Chyron HR
In B4 “That isn’t a real photograph, therefore science is a tool of the Prince of Lies!”
ffredpalakon
I think sooner or later we have to talk about this incredibly suave figure who was part of the GOP feminist outreach program.
schrodinger's cat
Tom Levenson@top
Eewww can you please put that icky thing under the fold. What has been seen cannot be unseen. BTW how is the magnificent Tikka?
Tom Levenson
@schrodinger’s cat: Icky? I thought that Hooke’s flea was so magnificent that I was thrilled it formed the centerpiece of the cover of my second book.
Tikka’s great, btw. Pix coming.
catclub
@Tom Levenson: But no posting on Bubonic Plague with a flea picture?
Of Course, a totally drug resistant bubonic plague (Pasteurella pestis?) would be awesome. For terrifying values of awesome.
raven
@Tom Levenson: Probably wouldn’t like my redfish skull display either!
Tom Levenson
@catclub:
I’ll get there. This’ll have to do as a stopgap.
Anoniminous
Anti-biotic resistance is slowly becoming the new normal.
Mnemosyne
@Certified Mutant Enemy:
Only if you come from a tradition that assumes that humans are God’s favorites. Once you give up that idea, some of these things make more sense, cosmically speaking.
scav
Like, TOTally like the Flea, and now I’m stuck with Valley Girl in my head. BBC’s Drama download this week has John Donne’s flea. I begin to sense a theme in my week — uh oh.
And Tom, I doubt you meant to “pose a thread”, although many here are dangerous.
? Martin
@Chyron HR:
I think the technical term is ‘lies straight from the pit of hell.’
NotMax
Minor quibble, but isn’t the title My Pet Goat?
Tom Levenson
@NotMax: No. (I must confess — I had it in my head as “My” not “The,” but in listening to the video, heard the teacher give the correct title.)
@scav: You know, I kind of like that typo, but will fix.
catclub
@Mnemosyne: Chracteristics of a loving God … apparently an inordinate fondness for beetles.
Emdee
Tom: Make a calendar, either Google Calendar or iCloud or anything that shares in CalDAV format. Publish the link. Remind folks of it every time you describe an event, and they can go look at the calendar and see the upcoming ones, and add them to their own calendars and get alerts and reminders and such.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
We have to save the important stuff for the Smithsonian on the Mall in DC. More people will see it that way.
Roger Moore
Yeah! I was able to correctly recognize the picture without having to check the description. Hooke was a genius.
BGinCHI
That’s the most detailed pen & ink drawing of Lindsey Graham I’ve ever seen.
Perfectly rendered.
Mnemosyne
@catclub:
Thousands of different species of beetles, only one species of human … it’s like He got bored with us and moved on to more interesting creations.
Zandar
USE FIRE ON IT.
Omnes Omnibus
That’s not a flea. This is a Flea.
OmerosPeanut
I’m just waiting for the near-totally resistant strains of chlamydia from Japan, now found in California and perhaps other areas of East Asia, to really hit the big time.
R-Jud
Ah, Hook’s flea! Just saw it in the second episode of an enjoyable BBC doc, The Century that Wrote Itself, which talks about two people I’d never heard of, Samuel Hartlib and Sir Thomas Browne, as well as Isaac Newton. Naturally I thought “Tom Levenson!”
Capri
@Anoniminous:
Antibiotic resistance is the old normal too – bacteria taken from animals that have never contacted humans already have resistance genes.
What’s bad is that you get the bacteria you select for, and we’re selecting for ones that are highly resistant.
Some food for thought – genes that make bacteria resistant to stuff that people use to kill bacteria instead of antibiotics – like copper – are encoded on DNA strands that also have antibiotic resistance genes on them. So just replacing antibiotics with other methods of killing off bacteria may not help the situation, it may even hurt.
Some more food for thought – those “good” bacteria that are in the probiotics that people take to normalize their upset stomachs often carry multi-drug resistance genes.
BAtFFP
Tocsin. Every time you post I learn a new word. Love it.
FlipYrWhig
@Omnes Omnibus:
Anoniminous
@Capri:
And the more effective an anti-biotic is, the faster the little buggers develop resistance. In an evolutionary arms race between humans and bacteria my bet is on the latter.
@Mnemosyne:
Being the nit picker that I am …
Beetles are the Order Coleoptera and the equivalent for us would be Primates. Our Family is Hominidae, Sub-Family Homininae along with gorillas, chimps, and bonobos. So while there is only one species of human (Homo sap. sap.) we share much with our cousins.
Trollhattan
@Zandar:
Tussin!
Eric U.
doctor made a nasty scar on my arm and told me not to use antibiotic cream on it. Makes sense, really. But I suspect that zinc-loving bacteria are just around the corner if they aren’t already here from all the diaper ointment.
lamh35
Ooh, as a med tech specializing in microbiolgy, you are seriously speaking my language.
But I deal in “bugs” all day and I ain’t even gonna lie, but once I get home, the last thing I want to talk about sometimes is microbes.
Oh and no matter what, whenever I see bugs like the one you posted, I always start to itch…lol
WereBear
I have subscribed to the podcast! This is a great way to not miss anything :)
WereBear
Regarding the subject: yes, it’s hideous that animals are mistreated in feedlots, and then it comes back to haunt us with resistant antibiotics and salmonella.
We buy humanely raised as the budget allows.
maya
As I understand it Double U has personally autographed 2977 black velvet cover copies for distribution to his most loyal supporters. Jen Rubin gets copy 666.
Herbal Infusion Bagger
Meh. I remember reading Laurie Garrett’s “The Coming Plague” book over a decade ago. Or trying to read it because she rendered it almost unreadable by turning every scientist she talked with into a character out of a Tom Clancy novel. That plague still hasn’t a-come.
I can’t help feeling that infectious disease is going to maybe be a bigger problem in the future than now, especially with rising temperatures, but not a OMG WE’RE GONNA DIE problem. H5N1 hasn’t turned out to be an epidemic strain, nor will H7N9. Plus, as we better understand the ways pathogens sucka-punch our immune system, the better we’ll be able to respond and come up with new drugs, although maybe not under the current pharma development model.
Herbal Infusion Bagger
With roughly ten pseudospecies of virus for every species of organism, I’d say God lurrrrves viruses. So much so he created lots of hosts for them.
pseudonymous in nc
@Tom Levenson:
Seen through such tiny lenses.
Reminds me of reading from an original copy of Micrographia back in the day. And the lobster in Thomas Willis’s De Anima Brutorem.
Paul Harrington
My Pet Goat? What about Camus’ “The Stranger” the only book I’ve ever heard of that Dubya finished? It’s about an emotionally obtuse guy who kills an Arab for no good reason.
JR in WV
Nothin’ scarier than drug-resistant microbes!! Wife was in hospital for 58 days (septic shock from pneumonia) so, of course, I was too. I used gallons of alcohol hand-cleaner many times a day.
One day I had a little sore on the back of my hand, so I put tri-biotic and a band-aid on it. The next day it was worse, so I stopped in our family doctor’s office. He gave me a script for a 10 day course of pills, and prescription salve as well. It went away, but what if it hadn’t?
Visiting a historic coal mine display in the New River Gorge National River, there’s a sign from the 1940s: “A tiny scratch can kill the strongest man!” I’m not sure if they’re talking about tetanus or just infections, but before antibiotics, it was the simple truth.
Very scary! I can’t believe I need a doctor’s prescription for antibiotics, but chickens or pigs just need feed from the farm store!! Pre-loaded with tetracycline in the bag!!!
Oh my FSM that’s stupid!!!!
OmerosPeanut
…did I confuse untreatable chlamydia and gonorrhea earlier?
peggy
@Herbal Infusion Bagger:
Just wait till Medicare or almost Medicare age. Infectious disease becomes more dangerous in the elderly and so antibiotics become more important. Myself and my gracefully aging friends all seem to need IV’s every so often, or just just pills for pneumonia. If those pills stop working we will stop gracefully aging rather rapidly.