Biology of Plagues

Biology of Plagues
Author: Susan Scott
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 438
Release: 2001-03-29
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1139432303

The threat of unstoppable plagues, such as AIDS and Ebola, is always with us. In Europe, the most devastating plagues were those from the Black Death pandemic in the 1300s to the Great Plague of London in 1665. For the last 100 years, it has been accepted that Yersinia pestis, the infective agent of bubonic plague, was responsible for these epidemics. This book combines modern concepts of epidemiology and molecular biology with computer-modelling. Applying these to the analysis of historical epidemics, the authors show that they were not, in fact, outbreaks of bubonic plague. Biology of Plagues offers a completely new interdisciplinary interpretation of the plagues of Europe and establishes them within a geographical, historical and demographic framework. This fascinating detective work will be of interest to readers in the social and biological sciences, and lessons learnt will underline the implications of historical plagues for modern-day epidemiology.

What Disease was Plague?

What Disease was Plague?
Author: Ole Benedictow
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 762
Release: 2011-01-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 900419391X

In recent decades, alternatives to the established bubonic-plague theory have been presented as to the microbiologcal identity and mechanism(s) of spread of historical plague epidemics. In this monograph, the six important alternative theories are intensively discussed in the light of the historical sources, the central primary studies and standard works on bubonic plague and the alternative microbiological agents, insofar as they are testable. These seven theories are incompatible and at least six of them must be untenable. In the author’s opinion, the arguments against the bubonic-plague theory and for all alternative theories are untenable. This monograph therefore also has been written also as a standard work on bubonic plague, giving a broad and in-depth presentation of the medical, epidemiological and historical evidence and the methodological tenets for identification of historical diseases by comparison with modern medical knowledge.

The Complete History of the Black Death

The Complete History of the Black Death
Author: Ole Jørgen Benedictow
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Total Pages: 1059
Release: 2021
Genre: History
ISBN: 1783275162

Completely revised and updated for this new edition, Benedictow's acclaimed study remains the definitive account of the Black Death and its impact on history. The first edition of The Black Death collected and analysed the many local studies on the disease published in a variety of languages and examined a range of scholarly papers. The medical and epidemiological characteristics of the disease, its geographical origin, its spread across Asia Minor, the Middle East, North Africa and Europe, and the mortality in the countries and regions for which there are satisfactory studies, are clearly presented and thoroughly discussed. The pattern, pace and seasonality of spread revealed through close scrutiny of these studies exactly reflect current medical work and standard studies on the epidemiology of bubonic plague. Benedictow's findings made it clear that the true mortality rate was far higher than had been previously thought. In the light of those findings, the discussion in the last part of the book showing the Black Death as a turning point in history takes on a new significance. OLE J. BENEDICTOW is Professor of History at the University of Oslo.

Polypharmacology

Polypharmacology
Author: Zhiguo Wang
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 870
Release: 2022-08-01
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 3031049985

There is a growing interest in unmet needs for the development of a new discipline in drug discovery and in university education on polypharmacology. However, there has not been a book with the comprehensive compilation of basic knowledge and advanced methodology that is needed. This book aims to meet the needs making Polypharmacology a new sub-discipline of Pharmacology, not only being a hot area of pharmacological research and education but also a new paradigm for drug discovery. It contains the contents covering the entire scope of Polypharmacology including systemic in-depth exposition of basic knowledge, novel concepts, innovative technologies, and translational and clinical applications by showcasing state-of-the-art strategies and step-by-step instructions of cutting-edge methods. The contents of this book targets broad readerships including scientists in pharmacology research and drug development, and university teachers and graduates in medical school or school of pharmacy.

Patient Zero

Patient Zero
Author: Lydia Kang
Publisher: Workman Publishing
Total Pages: 401
Release: 2021-11-16
Genre: History
ISBN: 1523513292

How did it start? Why did it spread? How do we stop it? Packed with one thrilling medical mystery after another, Patient Zero tells the curious story of 21 of the world’s worst diseases—including smallpox, Bubonic plague, polio, AIDS—by combining Patient Zero narratives with historical examinations of missteps, milestones, scientific theories, and more. Discover the tragic story of Zaire schoolteacher Mabalo Lokela, whose relaxing vacation resulted in him becoming Patient Zero of Ebola virus disease. How a rye fungus in 1951 turned a small village in France into a phantasmagoric scene reminiscent of Burning Man. And what the devastating 1918 influenza pandemic has to teach us about Covid-19. (Guess what: There was an anti-mask movement back then, too)

The Fifth Postulate

The Fifth Postulate
Author: Jason Socrates Bardi
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2008-12-01
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 0470467363

The great discovery that no one wanted to make It's the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, and Euclidean geometry has been profoundly influential for centuries. One mystery remains, however: Euclid's fifth postulate has eluded for two thousand years all attempts to prove it. What happens when three nineteenth-century mathematicians realize that there is no way to prove the fifth postulate and that it ought to be discarded—along with everything they'd come to know about geometry? Jason Socrates Bardi shares the dramatic story of the moment when the tangible and easily understood world we live in gave way to the strange, mind-blowing world of relativity, curved space-time, and more. "Jason Socrates Bardi tells the story of the discovery of non-Euclidian geometry—one of the greatest intellectual advances of all time—with tremendous clarity and verve. I loved this book." —John Horgan, author, The End of Science and Rational Mysticism "An accessible and engrossing blend of micro-biography, history and mathematics, woven together to reveal a blockbuster discovery." —David Wolman, author of Righting the Mother Tongue and A Left-Hand Turn around the World

Mediterranean quarantines, 1750–1914

Mediterranean quarantines, 1750–1914
Author: John Chircop
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Total Pages: 189
Release: 2018-03-13
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1526115573

Mediterranean quarantines investigates how quarantine, the centuries-old practice of collective defence against epidemics, experienced significant transformations from the eighteenth century in the Mediterranean Sea, its original birthplace. The new epidemics of cholera and the development of bacteriology and hygiene, European colonial expansion, the intensification of commercial interchanges, the technological revolution in maritime and land transportation and the modernisation policies in Islamic countries were among the main factors behind such transformations. The book focuses on case studies on the European and Islamic shores of the Mediterranean showing the multidimensional nature of quarantine, the intimate links that sanitary administrations and institutions had with the territorial organisation of states, international trade, political regimes and the construction of national, colonial and professional identities

Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence

Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence
Author: George C. Kohn
Publisher: Infobase Publishing
Total Pages: 545
Release: 2007
Genre: History
ISBN: 1438129238

Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence, Third Edition is a comprehensive A-to-Z reference offering international coverage of this timely and fascinating subject. This updated volume provides concise descriptions of more than 700.

World Atlas of Epidemic Diseases

World Atlas of Epidemic Diseases
Author: Smallman-Raynor Matthew
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2004-04-30
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1444114190

The euphoria about the defeat of epidemics which surrounded the global eradication of smallpox in the 1970s proved short-lived. The advent of AIDS in the following decade, the widening spectrum of other newly-emergent diseases (from Ebola to Hanta virus), and the resurgence of old diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria all suggest that the threa

Ancient and Medieval Medicine in Malta [before 1600 AD]

Ancient and Medieval Medicine in Malta [before 1600 AD]
Author: Charles Savona-Ventura
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 330
Release: 2016-03-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 1326614177

This book is an account of the history of medicine in its widest sense as practiced in the Maltese islands during the Prehistoric and classical periods, when medical practice was primarily based on superstition, religion and magic. While superstition and magic prevailed in the subsequent centuries, the late Classical period saw the introduction of a philosophical type of medical thought looking at disease as a disorder in the basic humors making up the body. This concept set the stage for the eventual scientific advances initiated during the Renaissance.