Sixty percent of infection diseases are zoonotic, meaning they spread from animals to people. Among the deadliest, and most difficult to eradicate, among these are viruses, which is why they’re so often in the news. This summer, an Ebola outbreak claimed dozens of lives in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In the U.S., nine people camping in Yosemite National Park were infected with hantavirus and three died. We’re also experiencing the nation’s worst-ever outbreak of West Nile Virus: so far 4,249 cases have been reported.
Tonight at the New York Academy of Sciences, David Quammen—the author of Spillover and PopSci’s “Out of the Wild” November feature story—will probe how such diseases spill over from animals to people and why most emerging infections are viral. He’ll ask an expert panel composed of Ian Lipkin and Dan Jernigan, two of America’s top disease scientists, and Maryn McKenna, one of its top disease journalists, what the next big outbreak will look like—and what scientists are doing to try to stop it.
“Wrath Goes Viral” is open to the public. Details here. Come join us!
Five amazing, clean technologies that will set us free, in this month's energy-focused issue. Also: how to build a better bomb detector, the robotic toys that are raising your children, a human catapult, the world's smallest arcade, and much more.


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I really don't think zombies will ever exist. Unless it's some organism that would take your bone structure for itself, Zombies, are kind of like viruses or hackers, they take control of your equiptment. So really, if zombies are just a fungus that could control your mind or something, the would exist. If zombies were a type of infection that doesn't touch your brain or make you behave differently, No, Zombies don't exist.
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First of all, Time travel is not possible and never will be. Even existing in the past would leave a quantum fingerprint that could cause a whole PARADOX.So you see? Time travel will never ever be possible. Also because if you were to do something in the
Lol, fun facts you just do not want to know. ;)
"...Estimates that the total number of bacteria excreted each day by an adult ranges from 100 billion to 100 trillion.
From this figure it can be estimated that the microbial density on a square inch of human bowel is around 50 billion organisms.
In the oily skin that is found on the side of the nose or in a sweaty armpit, the figure can increase tenfold; and once inside the body, on the surface of the teeth, throat, or alimentary tract, these concentrations can increase a thousandfold. These inside surfaces are the most densely populated region of the human body.
Wide range of parasites that live both on and inside you. These tend to be macroscopic organisms, and some of them can be pretty gruesome creatures.
Lice are perhaps the most common of these body dwellers. They have the ability to get everywhere from your hair to your armpits to your groin.
Nonetheless, they tend to be more itchy than damaging, unlike ticks, which can cause any number of nasty and exotic diseases from royal farm virus to Omsk hemorrhagic fever. And then there is the scabies mite, which is believed to infest millions of humans worldwide, and is able to burrow into the body to hide itself, causing a nasty itch.
Fortunately, its close relative, the follicle mite, which is found on everybody in the world, happily munches dried skin cells and causes far less irritation. And not all body parasites creep and crawl, you can find fungi in your hair and mold in your skin folds if you look closely enough.
Inside your digestive tract you can, among others, find the protozoan that causes amebic dysentery, 60 foot-long beef tapeworms, and a hookworm that has a penchant for finding its way into your bloodstream.
Other creatures in your blood can include the hermaphroditic Shistosoma worm, which can lead to a bloody and scarred bladder, while in your lymphatic system you may find the five-inch Wucheria worm.
In your liver you may come across the bile-loving Clonorchis sinensis fluke; and, perhaps most horrifying of all, the brain can house Naegleria fowleri, an amoeba that just loves the warmth that it finds inside your skull, reproducing in its millions until you drop down dead..."
Stop it Robot!
Think happy thoughts. Happy thoughts...