Mad Cow: it's here!

Talked to U of C's Dr. James Mastrianni, one of only two doctors in the country who works with living patients with Creutzfeld-Jakobs Disease (the human version of mad cow.) Prions, which are mysterious misfolded proteins that cause CJD--they're neither bacteria nor viruses, and no one knows very much about them at all--have to be contained in a level 3 Biohazard Safety Lab. What's that involve? Check it out!

Swine flu...in Chicago

5 cases of unconfirmed swine flu in Chicago. Two of them are staff at the U of C hospitals.

The reason why it takes so long to ID swine flu is that there are no local centers for testing - the Centers for Disease Control have to do them out of their labs in Atlanta.

I've talked to a couple of University researchers about the flu. One of them studied (for kicks, apparently) the path of the 1918 flu pandemic in Chicago and U of C in particular - turns out we were hosting a garrison of WWI soldiers at the time. Here they at left, drilling on Stagg Field, the U of C's old Big Ten football stadium (with no little irony, where our library is now.)


Read about what happened to these guys here!

Man + Machine at last?

Just finished the latest science feature for the Maroon. This one's about Nicho Hatsopoulos, a Greek statue of a man who works in what he calls "brain-machine interfacing" - essentially, using technology to let people communicate using only their brains. Useful? Sure, but especially for people missing arms and legs or paraplegics: it looks like someday we could be able to fit them with mechanical arms that are controlled with cues from their brain. Like Luke Skywalker's prosthetic hand in Empire Strikes Back, only better.

Read more about it here!.

MRSA bacteria breaks out of jail

My article on the MRSA (commonly called Staph A) epidemic, how the first doctor first noticed it in pediatric wards at the University of Chicago Hospitals, and what they did about it is up at the Maroon website.

The doctor who first noticed it is Robert Daum and he was wonderful to interview. He also says he's always looking for volunteers for the MRSA project!

Early human diet a hard nut to crack for U of C prof.

My first science column for the Maroon is up!

What did our early African ancestors eat to survive in tough times, and how do we know...based on only their skulls and some sweet computer technology? Find out here!