Caption: Blame it on Bacterio, Credit: Seth Shostak
Image by: Seth Shostak 
Blame it on Bacterio 

Blame it on Bacterio

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

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Think small! Microbes are tinier than the dot at the end of this sentence, yet they can make humans sicker than dogs, dogs sicker than humans, jump from animal to human and keep scientists guessing when and where the next disease will appear. Read the full description.

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Think small! Microbes are tinier than the dot at the end of this sentence, yet they can make humans sicker than dogs, dogs sicker than humans, jump from animal to human and keep scientists guessing when and where the next disease will appear.

Discover how doctors diagnosed one man’s mysterious infection, the role that animals play as hosts for disease, and why the rate of emerging diseases is increasing worldwide.

Also, why your kitchen is a biosafety hazard, and how the Human Microbiome Project will tally all the microbes on – and in – you.

Plus, the extreme places on Earth where microbes thrive and what it suggests for the existence of alien life. And, how one strain of bacteria helped a farmer grow a pumpkin the weight of a small car!

Guests:

  Peter Hudson – Biologist, Director of Life Sciences at Penn State University

  Peter Krause – Senior research scientist at the Yale School of Public Health

  Durland Fish – Epidemiologist at the Yale School of Public Health??
Information on his Lyme disease app

  David Relman – Stanford University microbiologist and infectious disease clinician

  Erich Fleming – Biologist, SETI Institute

  O. Peter Snyder – Hospitality Institute of Technology and Management

  John Raeside – Oakland, California

  Francis Raeside – Oakland, California

  Jennifer Kate Arnold – Infectious Disease Clinic, Kaiser Permanente Medical Group

  Dave Stelts – Farmer, head of the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth

  Neil Anderson – Owner, president of Reforestation Technologies International??Find retail products.

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Piece Description

Think small! Microbes are tinier than the dot at the end of this sentence, yet they can make humans sicker than dogs, dogs sicker than humans, jump from animal to human and keep scientists guessing when and where the next disease will appear.

Discover how doctors diagnosed one man’s mysterious infection, the role that animals play as hosts for disease, and why the rate of emerging diseases is increasing worldwide.

Also, why your kitchen is a biosafety hazard, and how the Human Microbiome Project will tally all the microbes on – and in – you.

Plus, the extreme places on Earth where microbes thrive and what it suggests for the existence of alien life. And, how one strain of bacteria helped a farmer grow a pumpkin the weight of a small car!

Guests:

  Peter Hudson – Biologist, Director of Life Sciences at Penn State University

  Peter Krause – Senior research scientist at the Yale School of Public Health

  Durland Fish – Epidemiologist at the Yale School of Public Health??
Information on his Lyme disease app

  David Relman – Stanford University microbiologist and infectious disease clinician

  Erich Fleming – Biologist, SETI Institute

  O. Peter Snyder – Hospitality Institute of Technology and Management

  John Raeside – Oakland, California

  Francis Raeside – Oakland, California

  Jennifer Kate Arnold – Infectious Disease Clinic, Kaiser Permanente Medical Group

  Dave Stelts – Farmer, head of the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth

  Neil Anderson – Owner, president of Reforestation Technologies International??Find retail products.

Broadcast History

new episode

Additional Files

Additional Credits

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

Related Website

http://radio.seti.org