Posts Tagged ‘germs’
“In the natural world, anything that is colored so brightly must be some kind of serious evolutionary badass”*…
There are an estimated 10 quintillion (10,000,000,000,000,000,000) individual insects alive on earth today; they’ve been around for over 350 million years and ihabit nearly every environment, from deserts to snowy mountains. Their total biomass is massive, estimated to be around 70 times more than all humans combined. Often considered pests, only about 3% of species are harmful to humans; the vast majority are crucial for pollination, decomposition, and as food sources for other animals. (More insect data.)
“Loren” (and here) is a microbiologist fascinated by bugs– and ready to share…
I am incredibly fond of insects. They’re small and usually pretty fast, so it’s rewarding to successfully capture a photo of one. from 2017 to 2023, I was fairly consistent about chasing down bugs and sharing the photos on instagram, but sticking them all in a square grid can only do so much for me (or you). Here, I want to have a little more fun with my photos, and share other bug-related things that I like. There’s a lot! I am not an entomologist, merely a bug fan, so this page in its current state skews more towards the entertaining than the informative, but who knows what it may turn into. Right now there’s an entomology textbook sitting on my coffee table, and plenty of time to read it while the bugs overwinter…
Browse and learn: “The Bug Zone,” via Matt Muir (@mattmuir.bsky.social) and his always-illuminating Web Curios (@curiobot.bsky.social).
* Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon
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As we creep and crawl, we might spare a thought for a man concerned with “bugs” of a different sort, Joseph Lister (1st Baron Lister, OM, PC, FRS, FRCSE, FRCPGlas, FRCS); he died on this date in 1912. A surgeon, medical scientist, and experimental pathologist, he was a pioneer of antiseptic surgery and preventive healthcare. Just as John Hunter revolutionised the science of surgery, Lister’s revolutionized the craft of surgery.
Lister researched the role of inflammation and tissue perfusion in the healing of wounds, and advanced diagnostic science by analysing specimens using microscopes. But his biggest contributions were a function of his application of Louis Pasteur‘s then-novel germ theory. Lister introduced carbolic acid (modern-day phenol) as a steriliser for surgical instruments, patients’ skins, sutures, surgeons’ hands, and wards, promoting the principle of antiseptics. And he devised strategies to increase the chances of survival after surgery by reducing post-operative infections (e.g., segragating post-op patients from pre-op patients who had germ-riddled wounds).
“It is not the germs we need worry about. It is our inner terrain.”*…
Background becomes foreground: Jean-Laurent Casanova on how we might better think about infectious diseases…
In 1955, René Dubos famously expressed his “second thoughts on the germ theory”, attributing infectious diseases to various “changing circumstances” that weaken the host by unknown mechanisms. He rightly stressed that only a small minority of individuals infected by almost any microbe develop clinical disease. Intriguingly, though, he did not mention the abundant and elegant findings reported from 1905 onward that unambiguously pointed to host genetic determinants of infection outcome in plants and animals, including human inborn errors of immunity. Diverse findings over the next 50 y[ears] corroborated and extended these earlier genetic and immunological observations that René Dubos had neglected. Meanwhile, the sequential advent of immunosuppression- and HIV–driven immunodeficiencies unexpectedly provided a mechanistic basis for his own views. Collectively, these two lines of evidence support a host theory of infectious diseases, with inherited and acquired immunodeficiencies as the key determinants of severe infection outcome, relegating the germ to an environmental trigger that reveals an underlying and preexisting cause of disease and death…
The full essay: “From second thoughts on the germ theory to a full-blown host theory,” from @PNASNews.
Pair with: “The World Is Toxic. Welcome to the Metabolic Era,” from @k_pendergrast in @WIRED.
* Louis Pasteur (who was clearly already having second thoughts)
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As we contemplate the clinical, we might sending healing birthday greetings to Charles Mayo; he was born on this date in 1865. A medical doctor (surgeon) and philanthropist, he co-founded the Mayo Clinic and it’s supporting/governing body, the Mayo Foundation. Within Mayo’s lifetime, it registered one million patients. As of today, Mayo Clinic has ranked number one in the United States for seven consecutive years in U.S. News & World Report‘s Best Hospitals Honor Roll, maintaining a position at or near the top for more than 35 years.
Ewwwwww…
… answer a few questions at The Oatmeal (site of previously-featured gems like this) and find out.
As we reach for the disinfectant wipes, we might recall that it was on this date in 1946 that the electric blanket, which had been invented in the form still known today in 1936, was first put on sale by the Simmons Company.
As this 1941 article attests, others were at work on the electric blanket as well… (source)
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