The bacteria which causes the infection in yellow-eyed penguins is closely related to a human pathogen.
A complete human genome, seen here in pairs of chromosomes, offers a wealth of information, but it is hard connect genetics to traits or disease.
HYanWong/Wikimedia Comons
The first full human genome was sequenced 20 years ago. Now, a project is underway to sequence 1 million genomes to better understand the complex relationship between genetics, diversity and disease.
Leeuwenhoek refined the magnifying glass, creating the world’s first microscope.
Tetra Images via Getty Images
Van Leeuwenhoek, who discovered bacteria, is one of the most important figures in the history of medicine, laying the groundwork for today’s understanding of infectious disease.
Hollywood movies have historically represented the tropics as lush green coasts but lurking underneath is disease and danger.
(Warner Bros.)
Hollywood movies have long leaned into colonial representations of the tropics: imagined as romantic palm-fringed coasts full of abundance, but also scary places full of pestilence and primitiveness.
Avian cholera is a highly contagious disease that has produced rapid population loss in Northern common eiders.
(Shutterstock)
We can learn about the spread of diseases through populations by studying naturally occurring instances of herd immunity. Avian cholera in the Canadian Arctic provides a useful case study.
Being a good mother depends on many factors, including the the bacteria in the mouse mother’s gut.
IvonneW/iStock/Getty Images Plus
Whether or not you respond to a certain medicine or therapy doesn’t just depend on you. The microbes in your gut play a role in the success or failure of various drugs, including cancer therapies.
Families can prioritize learning more healthy ways to eat.
Joe Raedle/ Getty Images News
Lifestyle medicine targets the root of chronic diseases like obesity, heart disease and diabetes. Experts explain why everyone should embrace these free prescriptions for good health.
Over 1.4 million people have died from COVID-19 so far this year. How history memorializes them will reflect those we most value.
Author provided
As ready as you are to be done with COVID-19, it’s not going anywhere soon. A historian of disease describes how once a pathogen emerges, it’s usually here to stay.
An Egyptian winged scarab amulet (circa 1070 –945 BC).
Believed to possess magical qualities, amulets were once widely used. They range from amber pendants worn during Denmark’s Mesolithic age to wind chimes found at Pompeii.
Damage to septic tanks is one of the major health hazards people face when they return to their bushfire-affected homes. It was simply dumb luck a disease outbreak didn’t happen last summer.
Health is a complex issue that requires an interdisciplinary approach to study and teach.
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The pandemic has revealed the complexity of new and ongoing health crises. Post-secondary institutions need to respond to this complexity with an interdisciplinary approach to teaching health issues.
Rich and diverse microbiomes in our local environment are important for keeping us healthy.
Rhetoric that casts COVID-19 as a Chinese virus stigmatizes Asian people and plays into racist tropes of a ‘yellow peril.’
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
Stating that COVID-19 is a “Chinese” disease, dehumanizes and reinforces well-worn stereotypes of Chinese people as the “yellow peril.”
A detail from Abbott Thayer’s 1887 painting ‘Angel,’ in which his eldest daughter appears as a heavenly figure.
Smithsonian American Art Museum, gift of John Gellatly
Research shows that children can become infected with the coronavirus and spread it to others. Though rare, some kids do become severely ill and a few have died from COVID-19.