evolution

Let’s Use the Brains Our Species Was Born with

Asked how human beings get the Ebola virus, National Institutes of Health infectious-disease director Anthony Fauci described, in a radio interview, the scenario of someone in Africa using a fruit bat “for protein nourishment.” The virus spills over to humans from nonhuman animals, to invoke David Quammen’s informative book Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic.

Why Doesn't America Allow Drug Importation?

Fred Upton sold out his Michigan constituents to the drug companies long agoI spent the holiday season on a ship cruising around the Galapagos, going from island to island. One day the highlight was seeing a sea lion give birth to her first pup and the next was watching an aquatic iguana rape a female iguana. Another day we saw parent frigates take turns caring for their chick while the other one hunted. The Ecuadorean naturalists helped us put the experiences into context.