Post by the Scribe on Aug 19, 2022 19:55:39 GMT
08/19/2022
How Viruses Have Shaped Our World
www.sciencefriday.com/segments/viruses-history-future/
27:36 minutes s3.amazonaws.com/scifri-segments/scifri202208192.mp3
READ TRANSCRIPT www.sciencefriday.com/segments/viruses-history-future/#segment-transcript
MORE FROM THIS EPISODE www.sciencefriday.com/episodes/august-19-2022/
an abstract painting of swirling colors
Credit: Shutterstock
SARS-CoV2. HIV. CMV. HSV-1 and HSV-2. MPX. EBV. HPV. WPV. WNV.
The alphabet soup of viruses that infect us may seem long and daunting. But as scientist and author Joseph Osmundson writes in Virology: Essays for the Living, the Dead, and the Small Things In Between, these viruses are vastly dwarfed by the total number of harmless or even beneficial viruses on our planet. “It’s a rounding error larger than zero,” he writes. A single ounce of seawater will contain more than seven billion individual viruses incapable of doing us harm.
Osmundson’s book is both COVID-19 quarantine memoir, and reflections of a self-described queer man coming of age after the identification of the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS. In it, he questions the war-like language we ascribe to “fighting” pathogens, explores the non-binary nature of health and illness, and advocates for a world where we are more ready to care for each other.
“The problem wasn’t illness,” he writes of HIV’s death toll before the development of effective treatments. “The problem never is. Illness is a fact of life. The problem is our inability to provide care to all.”
Osmundson talks to producer Christie Taylor about making new meanings for viruses through biomedicine and public health interventions. Plus, lessons for the monkeypox global public health emergency, and all the viruses to come.
Read an excerpt from Virology: Essays for the Living, the Dead, and the Small Things In Between.
www.sciencefriday.com/articles/illness-virology-excerpt/
Segment Guests
Joseph Osmundson
Joseph Osmundson is a clinical assistant professor of Biology at New York University, and author of Virology: Essays for the Living, the Dead, and the Small Things In Between (Norton, 2022).
MEET THE PRODUCER
About Christie Taylor
@ctaylsaurus
Christie Taylor is a producer for Science Friday. Her day involves diligent research, too many phone calls for an introvert, and asking scientists if they have any audio of that narwhal heartbeat.
How Viruses Have Shaped Our World
www.sciencefriday.com/segments/viruses-history-future/
27:36 minutes s3.amazonaws.com/scifri-segments/scifri202208192.mp3
READ TRANSCRIPT www.sciencefriday.com/segments/viruses-history-future/#segment-transcript
MORE FROM THIS EPISODE www.sciencefriday.com/episodes/august-19-2022/
an abstract painting of swirling colors
Credit: Shutterstock
SARS-CoV2. HIV. CMV. HSV-1 and HSV-2. MPX. EBV. HPV. WPV. WNV.
The alphabet soup of viruses that infect us may seem long and daunting. But as scientist and author Joseph Osmundson writes in Virology: Essays for the Living, the Dead, and the Small Things In Between, these viruses are vastly dwarfed by the total number of harmless or even beneficial viruses on our planet. “It’s a rounding error larger than zero,” he writes. A single ounce of seawater will contain more than seven billion individual viruses incapable of doing us harm.
Osmundson’s book is both COVID-19 quarantine memoir, and reflections of a self-described queer man coming of age after the identification of the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS. In it, he questions the war-like language we ascribe to “fighting” pathogens, explores the non-binary nature of health and illness, and advocates for a world where we are more ready to care for each other.
“The problem wasn’t illness,” he writes of HIV’s death toll before the development of effective treatments. “The problem never is. Illness is a fact of life. The problem is our inability to provide care to all.”
Osmundson talks to producer Christie Taylor about making new meanings for viruses through biomedicine and public health interventions. Plus, lessons for the monkeypox global public health emergency, and all the viruses to come.
Read an excerpt from Virology: Essays for the Living, the Dead, and the Small Things In Between.
www.sciencefriday.com/articles/illness-virology-excerpt/
Segment Guests
Joseph Osmundson
Joseph Osmundson is a clinical assistant professor of Biology at New York University, and author of Virology: Essays for the Living, the Dead, and the Small Things In Between (Norton, 2022).
MEET THE PRODUCER
About Christie Taylor
@ctaylsaurus
Christie Taylor is a producer for Science Friday. Her day involves diligent research, too many phone calls for an introvert, and asking scientists if they have any audio of that narwhal heartbeat.