Tag: viruses
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Martinus Beijerinck: A co-discoverer of viruses
Philip LiebsonChicago, Illinois, United States As early as 1676, Dutch textile worker Anthony Van Leeuwenhoek, working with an early microscope, was the first to identify bacteria. Because of the size of bacteria, easily seen by a microscope, it was inevitable that bacteria would be discovered by someone. Not so with viruses. Although the smallest bacteria…
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Koch’s postulates revisited
JMS Pearce Hull, England Van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1722), a Dutch botanist, using his early microscope observed single-celled bacteria, which he reported to the Royal Society as animalcules. The science of bacteriology owes its origin to two scientists of coruscating originality, Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch. Pasteur may be described as master-architect and Koch as master-builder…
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Book review: Viruses, Plagues, and History by M. B. A. Oldstone
Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, United Kingdom The first edition of Viruses, Plagues, and History was published to great acclaim twenty years ago and has now been updated to include the pandemics of the twenty-first century. These include the SARS, MERS, and Zika virus outbreaks, which have now been eclipsed by COVID-19. The early story of the…
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Where the unusual was usual: The Cook County Hospital blood bank
Jayant RadhakrishnanChicago, Illinois, United States There are those who claim that the first blood collection and transfusion services were started by Percy Oliver of the Camberwell Division of the British Red Cross in 19211 and not by Dr. Bernard Fantus at the Cook County Hospital, Chicago in 1937. However, everyone agrees that the term “Blood…
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Viruses and bacteria series
Laura OlearChicago, Illinois, USA Artist’s statement We live in an age of profound advances in health and medicine, yet there has never been a wider gap between objective and perceptive health. I am interested in the ways in which many people dissociate themselves from their bodies and health, while others focus fixatedly on them. The…