Image by: Seth Shostak

Bug Off!

From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Length: 54:00

Humans have been battling viruses and bacteria since the beginning of time; stories from the frontier of epidemiology. Read the full description.

Piece Audio

Podcast Version

Promos

Playing: Bug Off!
From: Big Picture Science

Bugoffmed_small

What you can’t see … can make you sick. Humans have been battling viruses and bacteria since the beginning of time. The malaria parasite has been keeping deadly company with us for 500,000 years. King Tut had it and so did Julius Caesar. What’s keeping this bug going today?

Also, how disease almost halted the most ambitious engineering project in the world … how elite disease detectives puzzle out perplexing epidemics … And – could tiny bugs from spaaace, ace, ace be our ancestors?

Guests:

Sonia Shah – Author of The Fever: How Malaria Has Ruled Humankind for 500,000 Years
Michael Conniff – Historian, director of Global Studies at San Jose State University, and author of Black Labor on a White Canal: Panama, 1904-1981 (Pitt Latin American Series)
Mark Pendergrast – Author of Inside the Outbreaks: The Elite Medical Detectives of the Epidemic Intelligence Service
Robert Zubrin – President of the Mars Society

Playing: Bug Off!
From: Big Picture Science

Bugoffmed_small

What you can’t see … can make you sick. Humans have been battling viruses and bacteria since the beginning of time. The malaria parasite has been keeping deadly company with us for 500,000 years. King Tut had it and so did Julius Caesar. What’s keeping this bug going today?

Also, how disease almost halted the most ambitious engineering project in the world … how elite disease detectives puzzle out perplexing epidemics … And – could tiny bugs from spaaace, ace, ace be our ancestors?

Guests:

Sonia Shah – Author of The Fever: How Malaria Has Ruled Humankind for 500,000 Years
Michael Conniff – Historian, director of Global Studies at San Jose State University, and author of Black Labor on a White Canal: Panama, 1904-1981 (Pitt Latin American Series)
Mark Pendergrast – Author of Inside the Outbreaks: The Elite Medical Detectives of the Epidemic Intelligence Service
Robert Zubrin – President of the Mars Society

Playing: Bug Off!
From: Big Picture Science

Bugoffmed_small

What you can’t see … can make you sick. Humans have been battling viruses and bacteria since the beginning of time. The malaria parasite has been keeping deadly company with us for 500,000 years. King Tut had it and so did Julius Caesar. What’s keeping this bug going today?

Also, how disease almost halted the most ambitious engineering project in the world … how elite disease detectives puzzle out perplexing epidemics … And – could tiny bugs from spaaace, ace, ace be our ancestors?

Guests:

Sonia Shah – Author of The Fever: How Malaria Has Ruled Humankind for 500,000 Years
Michael Conniff – Historian, director of Global Studies at San Jose State University, and author of Black Labor on a White Canal: Panama, 1904-1981 (Pitt Latin American Series)
Mark Pendergrast – Author of Inside the Outbreaks: The Elite Medical Detectives of the Epidemic Intelligence Service
Robert Zubrin – President of the Mars Society

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Piece Description

What you can’t see … can make you sick. Humans have been battling viruses and bacteria since the beginning of time. The malaria parasite has been keeping deadly company with us for 500,000 years. King Tut had it and so did Julius Caesar. What’s keeping this bug going today?

Also, how disease almost halted the most ambitious engineering project in the world … how elite disease detectives puzzle out perplexing epidemics … And – could tiny bugs from spaaace, ace, ace be our ancestors?

Guests:

Sonia Shah – Author of The Fever: How Malaria Has Ruled Humankind for 500,000 Years
Michael Conniff – Historian, director of Global Studies at San Jose State University, and author of Black Labor on a White Canal: Panama, 1904-1981 (Pitt Latin American Series)
Mark Pendergrast – Author of Inside the Outbreaks: The Elite Medical Detectives of the Epidemic Intelligence Service
Robert Zubrin – President of the Mars Society

Broadcast History

first aired 8/2/10

Additional Files

Listing - Bug Off! (Bug_Off.doc)

Additional Credits

Seth Shostak – Host and Producer
Molly Bentley – Co-Host and Executive Producer
Gary Niederhoff – Producer
Barbara Vance – Production Assistant
Jay Weiler - Assistant