The supremely talented Maryn McKenna – who writes on public health, infectious diseases, food policy, and more – has some new digs over at National Geographic. Her new blog, which launched last Thursday, is called Germination, and is well worth adding to your feed reader of choice.
Above: Shigella in culture | Credit: Todd Parker / CDC | McKenna writes about a newly identified drug-resistant form of Shigella in her second blog entry at Germination
FromMcKenna’s introductory post:
As a journalist, my interest is complexity, inadvertence, and unintended consequences… We got to widespread resistance because we wanted to cure infections quickly; we got to factory farming because we wanted to ensure affordable food. There isn’t (much) malfeasance in either of those endeavors, but there is a ton of good intentions—and good intentions gone bad are a rich, rewarding subject. We might be here a while.
Here’s what you can expect at Germination: reports on new scientific findings; inquiries into policy initiatives; profiles and interviews with researchers doing cool things; history; and, occasionally, whimsy.
Her first two posts have been on 1) whether Easter chicks are bad for you and 2) A newly identified, drug-resistant strain of Shigella sonnei that the CDC reports has caused 243 cases of illness in 32 states and Puerto Rico since last May; so, right off the bat we have some whimsy, some scientific findings, and a dash of scary all mixed together. Like I said – good stuff.
