Laura H. Kahn | Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Who would use chemical weapons?

Laura H. Kahn — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 12:46:27 -0400

The combatants in Syria are pointing fingers at each other. Syrian officials claim that the rebels used chemical weapons in a March 19th attack against Khan al-Assal, a town near Aleppo; the rebels say the Syrian government was the culprit. Whichever is the case, at least 25 people died and many others were wounded in the assault. The UN has decided to investigate: Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed Swedish scientist Ake Sellstrom, a former weapons monitor for the UN Special Commission on Iraq (UNSCOM), to lead the investigation.

Why humans should go to Mars

Laura H. Kahn — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 19:29:22 -0400

Humans first emerged from Africa around 60,000 years ago in search of new lands to explore and colonize. Since then, we've spread out across much of the planet and even gone into low Earth orbit in the International Space Station. The need to explore new frontiers appears to be embedded in our DNA.

Undermining Obamacare

Laura H. Kahn — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 08:43:37 -0500

Now that President Barack Obama has been reelected, his Affordable Care Act, "Obamacare," will move forward, which is good news for the health, safety, and security of the United States. But setting up Obamacare and actually providing it are two different challenges. Both will be hard.

The facts of fungi

Laura H. Kahn — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 19:06:37 -0400

It's the season for blood-sucking bats and flesh-eating zombies, but even the most ghoulish Halloween character can't hold a candle to one of the scariest life forms around: fungi.

The One Health solution

Laura H. Kahn — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 22:34:14 -0400

The popular press is finally recognizing the important connections among human, animal, and environmental health. Environmental destruction, global trade and travel, intensive agriculture, and other human activities all lead to the emergence of previously unknown microbes that can infect across species, causing zoonotic disease outbreaks like West Nile virus, avian influenza, hantavirus, HIV/AIDS, and others. No wonder the media is paying attention.

Keeping the life sciences honest

Laura H. Kahn — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 09:06:53 -0400

When scientist Ron Fouchier, from Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands, presented his research at a conference in Malta last year, he described how he and his colleagues induced mutations into the H5N1 virus, ultimately giving the deadly virus the ability to become airborne and transmit infection as efficiently as the seasonal flu. Fouchier was ostensibly trying to learn more about the virus in order to protect humanity from its dangers, but his work also meant risking that the virus he created would escape the lab or be mimicked by a rogue scientist with terrorist ties.

DIY biology

Laura H. Kahn — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 13:52:14 -0400

In the nineteenth century, research in the natural and life sciences was largely self-supported. Charles Darwin had the good fortune of being born into a wealthy family, enabling him to pursue his passions as a gentleman naturalist and to develop the trailblazing theory of evolution. Darwin's good fortune ended up being science's as well.

Plastic-wrapped planet

Laura H. Kahn — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 21:11:19 -0400

We can thank billiard balls for our modern-day, plastic-filled lives. For most of human history, everyday items such as combs were made from expensive animal parts, like tortoise shells. Then, in the 1860s, billiards became a popular pastime. Unfortunately, elephants had to be killed so that their ivory tusks could be made into billiard balls, and soon elephants were rapidly being hunted to extinction. One enterprising New York billiards supplier even offered $10,000 in gold to anyone who could come up with a good substitute for ivory.

The science fiction effect

Laura H. Kahn — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:37:13 -0500

It's alive! Neurophysiology. Huddled around a warm fireplace one cold summer's night in 1816, a small group of friends decided to hold a competition to see who could write the scariest horror story. While vacationing in a villa by Lake Geneva, Switzerland, the friends spent their time reading ghost stories and discussing the exciting experiment being performed by the scientists of the day: reanimating dead matter.

Going viral

Laura H. Kahn — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 08:40:47 -0500

We've been lucky. The avian influenza (H5N1) virus that first emerged in Hong Kong in 1997 -- which killed six and caused 18 serious illnesses -- has not acquired the ability to spread easily from person to person. Virtually all of the reported cases have involved contact with infected birds or bird products.

Using microbes to fight microbes

Laura H. Kahn — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 07:57:53 -0500

There are more microorganisms in and on our bodies than human cells. In fact, scientists estimate that microorganisms outnumber human cells by 10 to 1. These microbes cover our skin, nose, mouth, and gastrointestinal and urogenital tracts. Called the "human microbiome," scientists are investigating the relationship between these microbes and disease.

Why isn't health care a US right?

Laura H. Kahn — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 19:56:31 -0500

The US Supreme Court will likely decide on the constitutionality of President Barack Obama's health care law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act -- which requires American citizens to either buy health insurance or incur a penalty -- sometime this session. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta ruled against the law, while other appeals courts, including one in Cincinnati, have either rejected the case or upheld the law.

What Contagion missed

Laura H. Kahn — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 18:49:42 -0400

It's not often that Hollywood ventures into the realm of epidemics and public health, and when it does, the outcome is usually laughably out of touch with reality -- like Outbreak, the 1995 movie about a deadly Ebola-like virus that infected a city. To prevent the virus from spreading, the military decided to bomb the city to oblivion. Fortunately, a cure was discovered just in the nick of time.

How hurricane-proof is your state?

Laura H. Kahn — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 18:47:18 -0400

Even though it was downgraded to a Category 1 storm, Hurricane Irene still packed a serious punch. My family and I spent several nights in darkness, and our front yard turned into an ankle-deep bog.

How a deadly E. coli outbreak revealed Germany’s dysfunctional public health system

Laura H. Kahn — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 07:04:40 -0400

The plot just kept getting thicker. First, the culprit was cucumbers and tomatoes from Spain. Then it was bean sprouts from northern Germany. Then it wasn't.

The uncertainty surrounding sustainable agriculture

Laura H. Kahn — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 22:29:01 -0400

All of our planet's problems began 10,000 to 15,000 years ago with the domestication of livestock and crops, and it went downhill from there. While agriculture provided a stable food supply, it also required the destruction of pristine land. Surplus food enabled the growth of cities; cities led to civilizations; and civilizations eventually discovered the science and technology that allowed our numbers to grow. And, while these advances have been great for us humans, they haven't been so great for the natural world.

The Biological Weapons Convention: Proceeding without a verification protocol

Laura H. Kahn — Mon, 09 May 2011 09:26:54 -0400

The Seventh Review Conference of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) will be held this December in Geneva, with member states convening to assess the bioweapons nonproliferation regime and discuss ways to improve it. But is it worth trying to strengthen the BWC? Since its inception, the treaty has been plagued with well-recognized deficiencies: It lacks an implementing body, a verification protocol, an ability to investigate alleged violations, universality (it has only 163 member states), and industry support.

Is the United States prepared for a nuclear reactor accident?

Laura H. Kahn — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 08:57:29 -0400

As Japan struggles to contain the crisis at its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex, government officials in other nations are nervously assessing their own emergency-response policies and procedures for a nuclear reactor accident. If any country is prepared to handle the worst that nature can present, it's Japan, where strict building codes and evacuation drills saved many lives from the March 11 disaster. But even Japan was not ready for a colossal 9.0 earthquake followed by a devastating tsunami.

The unsolved anthrax murder mystery

Laura H. Kahn — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 23:18:09 -0400

The US public health system has serious vulnerabilities, and one major problem is identifying and responding to public health crimes.

Deforestation and emerging diseases

Laura H. Kahn — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 08:44:15 -0500

In the late 1990s a deadly new disease emerged from the tropical forests of Malaysia, spread by fruit bats whose natural habitat had been destroyed by deforestation. The Malaysian government was unprepared for this new disease and subsequently bore high costs from the outbreak, including more than 100 human lives lost as well as an economically devastating collapse of its pig-farming industry. Eventually, the new scourge was identified and named: the Nipah virus.