Science Friday > Archives > 2004 > September
> September 24,
2004:
Hour Two: Ancient Sea Creature / John Snow and Epidemiology
150 years ago this month, a London physician by the name of John Snow mapped out the spread of a cholera outbreak in the city. Realizing that a common factor among the victims was use of a particular communal water pump, Snow removed the pump handle -- and the outbreak subsided. Becasue of those actions, Snow is now regarded by many as the father of the science of epidemiology. In this hour, we'll look back at Snow's life, and at the development of epidemiology.
Plus, we'll find out about the discovery of an ancient long-necked sea creature that inhabited the seas around what is now southeast China, over 230 million years ago. Call in with your questions and comments at 1-800-989-8255 (3-4 Eastern), and share your opinions online in our Listeners' Lounge (registration required).
Guests:
Michael LaBarbera
Professor, Department of Organismal Biology & Anatomy, Department of Geophysical
Sciences, and the Committee on Evolutionary Biology
University of Chicago
Chicago, Illinois
-----------
Nigel Paneth, M.D., M.P.H.
Professor of Epidemiology and of
Pediatrics
Associate Dean of Research
College
of Human Medicine
Michigan State University
East Lansing, Michigan
Howard Brody, MD
Professor in the Departments of Family
Practice, of Philosophy,
and in the Center for Ethics and
Humanities in the Life Sciences
College
of Human Medicine
Michigan State University
East Lansing, Michigan
Stephen Rachman
Associate Professor of English
Director of the American
Studies Program
Michigan State University
East Lansing, Michigan
This segment produced by Karin Vergoth
Archived Audio:
sea creature
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in Windows Media format
John Snow
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streaming audio
help from NPR
Related Links:
Michigan
State University Newsroom - One-hundred-fifty year old lessons of John
Snow still relevant today
John
Snow - a historical giant in epidemiology
CSISS
Classics - John Snow: The London Cholera Epidemic of 1854
Mode
of Communication of Cholera(John Snow, 1855)
BBC
- History - John Snow (1813 - 1854)
150th
Anniversary of John Snow and the Pump Handle
John Snow Archive and Research
Collection
Longest-necked
protorosaur ever unearthed
New
dinosaur may be world's first stealth hunter
Books/Articles Discussed:
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