David Quammen, according to his website is "an author and journalist whose twelve books include The Song of the Dodo, The Reluctant Mr. Darwin, and most recently Spillover, a work on the science, history, and human impacts of emerging diseases (especially viral diseases)." I would hope you have read some of his works in any of the many places he has published. According to the New York Times, Quammen is "not just among our best science writers but among our best writers, period.” Reading some of his works, I can't help but agree.
He has recently worked with The Weather Channel to produce several short videos based on his latest book, Spillover, called The Virus Hunters. Each segment runs about 5-6 minutes and features an engaging vignette from the book centered around several of the diseases including AIDS, Hantavirus, Rabies, Ebola, Marburg and Hendra viruses.
We are very fortunate to have David as our guest on Tuesday, May 6 at noon EDT in our next episode of Read Science! We will be picking up where the video series and his book has left off in our never-ending battle against ever evolving viruses that jump from host species to humans.
You will be able to watch the Google Hangout on Air at the event page, on SciAm's youtube page or right here! You will also be able to post questions you may have about emerging viral diseases and have them answered by David himself if you join us at the SciAm Google event page. We hope you will join us!
