The theme of a recent New Media in Education Conference held at Columbia University was how digital media has reshaped the traditional academic publishing paradigm. I participated in a session entitled ‘New media publishing: Whither the textbook?‘ in which four panelists spoke about their experiences in this area. I spoke about how I use podcasting, …
Recently thousands of dead and decaying pigs were pulled from rivers in Shanghai and Jiaxing, China. Apparently farmers dumped the animals into the water after the pigs became ill. Porcine circovirus has been detected in the in pig carcasses and in the water. Porcine circoviruses are small, icosahedral viruses that were discovered in 1974 as …
Viruses are obligate intracellular parasites, which means that they must enter a cell to reproduce. As virions are too large to diffuse passively across the plasma membrane, cellular pathways for uptake of extracellular materials provide entry routes. The first step in entry is adherence of virus particles to the membrane, an interaction mediated by binding …
Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen is a radio show co-produced by Public Radio International and WNYC. The show for the week of 8 March 2013 is called ‘Going Viral‘ and includes seven segments entitled ‘Viruses at the movies’, ‘Does your zombie have rabies’, and ‘Playing against the virus’. They did speak with one virologist for …
Each year as I teach my undergraduate virology course, I record each lecture and put them online where they are freely accessible. You can find the 2013 lectures here at virology blog and on iTunes U. The complete 2012 course lectures are also available (virology blog and iTunes). And don’t forget Virologia en Español, a …
The US Office of Science and Technology Policy recently released proposed guidelines for maximizing the benefits and minimizing misuse of life sciences research. The measures establish oversight responsibilities for universities and other institutions that receive Federal funding: Specifically, such institutions would be required to review their current life sciences research involving those pathogens or toxins deemed …
Proposed US policy on dual use research of concern Read More »
