How to Eradicate a Disease

We eradicated smallpox in 1980. What’s next?

In 1980 small pox was declared officially eradicated worldwide. In 2015, strain 2 of the polio virus was eliminated. In October, 2019, strain 3 of the polio virus was also declared eradicated by the World Health Organization. That leaves only strain 1 of the polio virus left to deal with to completely eradicate polio in our modern world.

What do we need to do to eradicate many other infectious diseases? It turns out that there are 5 conditions that need to be satisfied in order to eradicate a disease…More

We’re Just Big Slime Buckets- Part 2

Say your kid (or your partner or best friend or someone at work) has been running around with a stuffed up drippy nose all week and now your own nose is getting stuffed up and drippy. And you think, shoot, I’m coming down with a cold! I hate being sick.

And that’s a good thing. Why you should appreciate your sliminess.

But maybe you’re not. Getting sick, I mean.

Maybe all that slime is actually doing something good for you…More

We’re Just Big Slime Buckets – Part 1

That’s what I was most of my life. How I changed that and why you should appreciate your sliminess.

I have been fighting a life-long battle with mucus. Not a major war like people with cystic fibrosis or other true disease conditions, but definitely what seems to me to have been a never-ending series of skirmishes.

My first major battle happened when I was about 9 or 10 years old. Our family had gone on holiday to Upstate New York (at the time we lived on Long Island, NY) and went on a tour of Howe Caverns. As we descended I found it harder and harder to breathe, started wheezing and by the end of the tour, my Dad was carrying me because I wasn’t able to walk it was so hard to breathe.

That was my first asthma attack…More

What Are You Doing to Save Earth’s Water?

Practical stuff we can all do that helps. My new SIC it method.

Where I look at a typical day, examine all the instances when I use water and in each instance, ask the question; Is this the best I can do?

If the answer was yes, I moved on. If the answer was no, I used my new SIC it method. (Strategize, Implement, Conserve it) …more

Here’s 10 Reasons Why You Should Love Lichens

“Has a squamulose primary thallus with fruticose podetia that grow up from it”

WHAT THE……????

With descriptions like that, it’s no wonder that so many people don’t bother to learn about lichens.

There are lots of common lichens that are easily distinguished and can be identified by their pictures in popular field guides to plants…More

It’s Turtles All the Way Down

And what they are saying about our current state of bio awareness and climate change

Given that so many cultures revere turtles and assigned to them so many positive virtues, you might think we would ensure that they are protected and encouraged to thrive.

As you’ll see in this article, that’s not the case at all. Turtle populations are shrinking and some species are becoming extinct.

Why is that happening? And why are we letting it happen?

I look at turtles and their biology to see what they are “telling us” these days about the state of this planet we call home…More

The American Burying Beetle: A Success Story?

Were they ever really endangered?

Almost 2 years ago, Scientific American published an article by Hannah Nordhaus entitled “Beetle Resurrection” that made the American Burying Beetle (Necrophorus americanus) a poster child for how the oil industry and other political and economic interests regarded an endangered species that most Americans didn’t know about and previously never cared about in the first place.

As is often the case, there was a rash of articles, posts and blogs in all the top media outlets talking about the American Burying Beetle and then it was business as usual and the issue seemed to disappear.

Or was it and did it?…More

Are Chimpanzees Really Human?

Why many biologists and anthropologists think that chimps and humans are so closely related that they belong in the same genus.

 I also present some of the advantages and disadvantages that would result from such a reclassification…More

8-Point Checklist for How to Reduce Your Bio-Footprint

How do you reduce your bio-footprint?

You don’t need to take big gigantic steps. You don’t need to be a tree-hugging left winger, gluten-free, vegan person who only wears homespun cotton or wool garments and sandals constructed using hemp fibre etc etc.

If you want to reduce your bio-footprint, all you need to do is apply a tiny bit of mindfulness…More