Challenges to Conquering Polio, Google Baby, Caravaggio’s Remains
This week: Can we eradicate polio? We put that question to the man who led the effort to eradicate smallpox, D. A. Henderson. An update on the commercial whaling controversy from the ongoing International Whaling Commission meeting in Morocco. A tale about globalizing egg surrogacy. Elsa brings news about ancient human migrations, and a clue to the mysterious death of a renowned 17th century Italian painter.
Fighting Polio: Although the disease has been eradicated from large parts of the world, polio continues to thrive albeit in small numbers in a few countries. You may remember our coverage of the resurgence of polio in Asia in podcast 67. And new study published this week discusses polio cases in Nigeria, some of which were caused by the live virus in the oral polio vaccine. We speak about the feasibility of eradicating polio with epidemiologist D. A. Henderson. He’s the man who led the campaign that eradicated smallpox. And by the way, this is a podcast exclusive interview! (Image credit: CDC)
Guest: D. A. Henderson
The World Health Organization on polio.
Global Polio Eradication.
About the polio vaccine from the CDC.
BBC polio resource page.
Our story on polio resurgence in podcast 67.
Legalizing Commercial Whaling: The International Whaling Commission meeting in Agadir, Morocco is about to end. The BBC’s Richard Black has been following the meeting from outside the conference in Agadir. He tells us what he’s been hearing about the negotiations. The rumor is that even environmental groups like Greenpeace may support the new compromise proposal to legalize small-scale commercial whaling by some countries.
Guest: The BBC’s Richard Black
“Whaling ‘Peace Deal’ Falls Apart” on the BBC.
Our Science Forum discussion about whaling with Stephen Palumbi.
BBC coverage.
Google Baby: An egg from an American female donor is fertilized with sperm from an Israeli man who takes the fertilized egg to India to grow in the womb of an Indian woman. The outsourcing of surrogacy is the topic of Zippi Brand Frank’s documentary, “Google Baby”, which is airing on HBO.
Guest: Zippi Brand Frank
Movie Website and trailer.
Elsa’s Favorite Stories:
- North Feels Uphill: On the map, north is up. That convention may be messing with our minds, so we believe that going north will take more time and effort than going south. Psychologists found that that’s the case when they quizzed college students about how long it would take to travel between the same two points by traveling north versus south.
The study.
Science News coverage. - Prehistoric Migrations to the Americas: Most genetic evidence suggests that prehistoric humans migrated from Asia to the Americas just once. But a careful study of skulls–both recent and fossilized–indicates that modern Native Americans are not, in fact, the direct descendants of the earliest Americans. Instead, ancient and modern Native Americans probably descended from two separate groups that migrated from Asia at different times.
The study.
ScienceNOW coverage.
Atlas of the Human Journey from National Geographic.
Website of study co-author Katerina Harvati. - Caravaggio’s Remains Identified?: Baroque Italian painter Caravaggio died of unknown causes in his late thirties. Now anthropologists think they’ve tracked down his bones in a church crypt in Tuscany. Although the skeleton still doesn’t reveal the cause of death, it does contain unhealthy levels of lead. Lead poisoning from his own paints could have weakened Caravaggio, and probably did little to improve his violent personality.
Coverage from The Guardian.
Wall Street Journal article about Silvano Vinceti and his work on Renaissance cold cases.
See some of Caravaggio’s paintings.
