Recent Episodes
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PMDs and Advancing Medicine
Our bodies are useful in other ways after we die. Medical students and researchers need human bodies for dissection and basic research. Scientists have now created a new way for our deceased selves to be helpful. It's called PMD which stands for "physiology maintained deceased"; when there is no brain function and the bodies are kept alive artificially through ventilation and assisted circulation for a limited time.
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How Fast does an Infection Disease Spread
If you're looking to big box stores to tell you what season it is, you'd be confused. Halloween decorations in August, and Christmas in September. But for Dave and I, it's clear this is flu season.
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The Bacteria That Helped To Defeat Napoleon
Different generations of leaders and soldiers learned the same lesson the hard way. Both Napoleon and Hitler invaded Russia and both armies failed. We now know from a study that two additional diseases plagued Napoleon's troops along with hunger, cold, and harassment from Russian troops.
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Left Handers Rule
Sometimes I feel like an alien. Why? I am very left-handed. I can't do anything with my right hand. While this can give me the upper hand (ha!) in tennis, the reality is most of the world is backwards to me. Same for one of my children who had to learn the downsides of being a south paw.
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Long Term Consequences for a Starved Child
Seeing disturbing images about the famine in Gaza had me thinking about the long-term consequences of the starving children there, should they survive. At least half a million Gazans face starvation with little humanitarian aid being allowed in. After just a few days without food, a child's body begins to tap into stores of glucose in the liver, and then fat stores to keep the brain and other organs going.
