Pathogen

Have I been exposed to the pathogen?

And, while they found the pathogen Serratia marcescens in these other animals, the genetic analysis showed that only the strain from human sewage matched the strain found in white pox diseased corals on the reef.

But unlike White-nose syndrome or chytrid disease, in which a single pathogen has wiped out millions of creatures across vast distances, Goldberg does not think a single germ is responsible for all the mussel die-offs.

The new blood test promises to provide that speedy diagnosis. Investigators say it can tell within hours whether someone is infected with mycobacterium, the pathogen that causes tuberculosis.

Until now, scientists couldn’t distinguish the silent bacteria from the active ones to know whether dormant mycobacterium were being killed by different compounds. Abramovitch and colleagues developed a strain of the pathogen that glows bright green. They found it stopped glowing after artemisinin came into contact with the mycobacteria’s oxygen biosensor, presumably dying.

In his first book since the 2008 essay collection Natural Acts: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature, David Quammen looks at the natural world from yet another angle: the search for the next human pandemic, what epidemiologists call “the next big one.” His quest leads him around the world to study a variety of suspect zoonoses—animal-hosted pathogens that infect humans.