Science writer David Quammen presented a talk at the Museum of the Rockies entitled Racing COVID: How Science Battled a New Global Pandemic, in which he discussed the origins of COVID-19, the most unexpected things he learned about it, and the compelling stories of scientists who raced to understand it and develop vaccines, as described in his new book Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus. The book has recently been announced as a finalist for the National Book Award in nonfiction. Recorded October 19, 2022.
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Library Community Forum with David Quammen
Viruses affect all life on earth, and humans cannot be separated from the natural world or from the diseases that are part of nature. In this Bozeman Library Community Forum, distinguished science writer David Quammen discusses the factors responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic—its origins, how it spread from animals to humans and back again, and what the future may hold. His talk was followed by a lively Q&A.
Immediately following that, Mike Maltaverne, Deputy Chief of Operations for the Bozeman Fire Department, and Patrick Lonergan, Chief of Emergency Management and Fire in Gallatin County, provided an update on local vaccinations and the process going forward.
Recorded online on March 17, 2021.
SPILLOVER: UNDERSTANDING THE ORIGINS OF PANDEMICS with David Quammen & Raina Plowright
On the evening of August 26, 2020 the first part of a series of online community fora on topics related to the COVID-19 pandemic was held. Sponsored by the Initiative for Science, Technology, Ethics and Society at Montana State University, Bozeman, it was titled, SPILLOVER: UNDERSTANDING THE ORIGINS OF PANDEMICS.
It featured presentations by award winning author, David Quammen, whose 2012 book, SPILLOVER: ANIMAL INFECTIONS AND THE NEXT HUMAN PANDEMIC, warned of coming pandemics; and Dr. Raina Plowright, Associate Professor of Microbiology & Immunology, who specializes in the dynamics of infectious diseases and the process of pathogen spillover from animals to humans.
Professor Kristen Intemann of the MSU History & Philosophy Department and Director of the Initiative for Science, Technology, Ethics and Society, moderated the discussion.
David Quammen Dr. Raina Plowright
Dr. Kristen Intemann
You can find out more here: http://www.montana.edu/stes/
David Quammen – The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life
To hear this interview with David Quammen, click on this link:https://forthright.media/2018/08/29/david-quammen-the-tangled-tree-a-radical-new-history-of-life/
Carl Woese, who revolutionized our understanding of evolution.
To download the interview, see below.
David Quammen and The Tangled Tree
Bozeman-based science writer David Quammen explains how recent discoveries in molecular biology can change our understanding of evolution and life’s history, with implications for human health and even our own human nature. Most importantly, the existence of horizontal gene transfer, meaning that genetic material can and does pass between unrelated species, essentially invalidates the standard, simply branching depiction of the tree of life. Reading from and discussing his new book, entitled The Tangled Tree, Quammen describes some of the discoveries and the researchers who made them–people such as Carl Woese, the most important biologist of the twentieth century that nobody knows.
Recorded at the Country Bookshelf in Bozeman on August 22, 2018.
David Quammen – Spillover: Animal Infections & the Next Human Pandemic
In this edition of Forthright Radio, originally broadcast on May 1, 2013, intrepid journalist, David Quammen, discusses his book, SPILLOVER: ANIMAL INFECTIONS& THE NEXT HUMAN PANDEMIC, in which he tracks down the animal origins of such diseases we humans are now susceptible to, including viruses such as HIV-AIDS, SARS, EBOLA, HENDRA, MARBURG, and INFLUENZA, and bacteria such as LYME DISEASE and Q FEVER.
Among the questions he investigates are: Why do new diseases emerge when they do, where they do, as they do, and not elsewhere, other ways, at other times? Is it happening more now than in the past? And perhaps the biggest question: What sort of deadly bug, with what unforeseen origins and what inexorable impacts, will emerge next?
David Quammen is the author of four books of fiction, and seven acclaimed books of nonfiction, including THE RELUCTANT MR. DARWIN and THE SONG OF THE DODO. He served as the Wallace Stegner Chair of Western American Studies at Montana State University from 2007 – 2009. He is a contributing writer for National Geographic magazine. SPILLOVER: ANIMAL INFECTIONS AND THE NEXT HUMAN PANDEMIC is more than a page turner about how microbes cross from animal species into humans and evolve into infectious diseases, it is also a chronicle of the many far flung journeys David Quammen has taken to some of the most remote parts of the globe, to interview the scientists in the field, who search for the animal reservoirs from which they come. He spoke to us from his home in Bozeman, MT.
Forthright Radio DAVID QUAMMEN, Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic
5-1-13 DAVID QUAMMEN In his latest book, Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic, he tracks down the animal origins of such viruses as HIV/AIDS, SARS, Ebola, Marburg and Influenza; and bacteria such as Lyme Disease and Q Fever. Among other questions he investigates are: Why do strange new diseases emerge when they do, where they do, as they do – and not elsewhere, other ways, or at other times? Is it happening more now than in the past? And the biggest question: what sort of nasty bug, with what unforeseen origins, and what inexorable impacts will emerge next?