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What do the world’s “bottom billion” — the approximate number of the world’s citizens earning less than $1.25 USD per day — have in common? Aside from poor living conditions, malnutrition, and political voicelessness, they are also all more likely to…

Ellen ’t Hoen is the executive director of the Medicines Patent Pool Foundation and was the Senior Advisor on Intellectual Property for UNITAID, a global health funding agency hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva. She was also the…

In many ways, tuberculosis (TB) is an unusual disease, but it is certainly not uncommon. It is an infectious disease caused by transmittable bacteria. However, about nine out of ten people who are infected after exposure to Mycobacterium tuberculosis,…

What is Dengue fever? Dengue fever (pronounced DENG-gay), an illness caused by the Dengue virus, is a global public health concern that affects 50-100 million people annually [1]. Over the last 50 years, global Dengue infections have increased 30-fold.…

--Eventually, everyone experiences “senior moments.” You may forget where you left your keys, or walk into a room only to realize that you can’t recall why you entered in the first place. As we get older, the physical signs of slowing down also become…

--While the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico dominated the news during summer 2010, it was a somewhat unusual summer for the rest of the world as well. Extreme heat and fires in Russia caused millions of dollars worth of damage. Flooding in Pakistan has…

--In many cultures, including our own, bread constitutes a significant portion of the daily diet. However, how often do we stop to think about the unique material properties of the food that we eat and how those properties influence how bread (or any…

--Almost all of us have, or know someone who has an allergy. An allergy is an overreaction of your immune system to something that is foreign to your body, but may not be dangerous to other healthy individuals. People can be allergic to pollen, mold,…

--Humans are an extremely visual species, with much of our brains devoted to visual processing. Sight is one of the most important ways we experience our external environment; consequently, it may not be surprising that certain images can invoke a…

--The Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion is shaping up to be one of the great disasters of our time. The equivalent of nearly 5 million barrels of crude oil has already been released into the Gulf of Mexico, endangering the local marine and coastal…