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Lina Zeldovich

Lina Zeldovich

Lina Zeldovich grew up watching her grandfather fertilize the family’s organic orchard with composted sewage and thought that the whole world did the same. Thirty years later, she had won four awards for covering the science of poo and focused her book on the novel solutions to the world’s oldest problem—keeping humans free from their own excrement. In writing The Other Dark Matter, she toured a slew of smelly sewage plants, hopped over many stinky street gutters, stuck her nose into a stool bank—and lived to tell the story. When she isn’t digging into humanure in India, Madagascar or North America, she lives in New York City and tends to a compost pile in her backyard.

A truck dumping biosolids in Geneva, Illinois

Waste Not, Want Not

Sewage is a vital part of a circular economy—and we have the tech to make good use of it. Why don’t we?
Illustration: Reconstruction drawing of public Latrine at Forum Hadriani, Germania Inferior, Netherlands

Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/carolemage/9548853868

The Early History of Human Excreta

When humans stopped being nomadic, we could no longer walk away from our waste. We’ve been battling it ever since.
Members of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union receive the flu shot in 1957

These Good News Medical Stories Got Us through 2020

The science of COVID-19 vaccines, the 1957 flu vaccine that controlled that outbreak, eradicating polio in India with oral vaccines, and more.
Care homes group managing director Mary Anson receives the Covid-19 vaccine as the Royal Cornwall Hospital begin their vaccination programme on December 9, 2020 in Truro, United Kingdom

The COVID-19 Vaccines Arrived at Warp Speed

Are they safe if they were developed so quickly? Research-backed answers to your virus questions.
A hand holding coarse dry ice pellets

Dry Ice Will Help Keep COVID-19 Vaccines Cold

A brief history of dry ice, aka solid carbon dioxide, shows why some coronavirus vaccines will benefit from its use.
geothermal basin in Yellowstone NP, Wyoming.

How Yellowstone Extremophile Bacteria Helped With Covid-19 Testing

The heat-resistant enzyme from Thermus aquaticus is used in PCR testing to detect pathogens.
Little brown bat

What Bats Can Teach Humans About Coronavirus Immunity

Bats have a unique genetic ability to tolerate many viral infections. Can humans uncover their secrets?
Operation Crossroads

Bombs and the Bikini Atoll

The haute beachwear known as the bikini was named after a string of islands turned into a nuclear wasteland by atomic bomb testing.
Four top pickers holding barrels of beans. Morrisvile. 1943.

The Brooklyn College Farm Labor Project of the 1940s

The coronavirus pandemic left farmers falling back on students to pick crops. But it certainly wasn’t the first time.
Source: https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.24738828

The Wellcome Collection—Perfect Medicine for the Incurably Curious

Pharmacy genius, Henry Solomon Wellcome amassed a lot of knowledge—and amazing tchotchkes too.
A gas flare from the Shell Chemical LP petroleum refinery illuminates the sky on August 21, 2019 in Norco, Louisiana

Environmental Racism and the Coronavirus Pandemic

COVID-19 is disproportionately deadly among people of color. Long-term environmental racism could be a major factor in this disparity.
A nurse applies a vaccine in Caracas, Venezuela in March, 2020

How Will a Coronavirus Vaccine Work?

Four different ways researchers use the virus's own structure to train our immune systems to exterminate it.
An illustration of a Culiseta melanura mosquito.

A Deadly Virus is Lurking in East Coast Mosquitoes

Eastern Equine Encephalitis may be brewing in the bog near you. Should you worry?
Palm trees in fog, Florida

Will the Saharan Dust Cloud Damage Our Lungs?

The airborne particles carry microbes and fungi, and can react with human lung tissue.
Man holding Dirty used disposable medical mask on beach by sea. Pollution due coronavirus pandemic

What Happens to All That Used PPE?

Gloves, masks, and other personal protective equipment have kept us safe during the pandemic. Now they're washing up on beaches around the world.
Mother and daughters planting flowers in a backyard

Five Ways To Help the Environment While in Lockdown

We can’t be wandering outside much right now, but there are still ways to go green.
A Canada Goose

Has the U.S. Government Abandoned Birds?

Recent changes to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 leave birds vulnerable to industry, experts say.
La Malaria by Auguste Hebert

Cracking the Malaria Mystery—from Marshes to Mosquirix

It took science centuries to understand malaria. Now we’re waiting to see how the 2019 vaccine pilot works.
Members of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union receive the flu shot in 1957

How America Brought the 1957 Influenza Pandemic to a Halt

Microbiologist Maurice Hilleman saw it coming, so the country made 40 million doses of the vaccine within months.
Women administer two drops to a child in India

Two Drops of Life: India’s Path to End Polio

On the eve of its 6th polio-free anniversary, India immunizes over 170 million children, despite a lack of roads, reinfection threats, and a periodic mistrust of vaccines.
A cup of coffee with a red circle and a line struck through it

When Coffee Cargo Was Quarantined

In the 1800s, sick passengers weren’t blamed for disease epidemics—their baggage and cargo was.
A chrysanthemum overlaid with the chemical formula for pyrethrins

What Do Pesticides and Chrysanthemums Have in Common?

They both contain insecticides called pyrethrins, used in ancient Persia. Today we use them in lice-killing shampoos.
A phone with a heart-shaped lock on its screen and roses in the background

Ditch the Smartphone and Smell the Roses This Valentine’s Day

Digital detox services may be just as important for your health as a chemical detoxification
CamelBak brand water bottles hang on display at an outdoor supply store

How Safe Is BPA-Free Plastic?

With BPA gone from many plastic products, researchers are concerned about other environmental chemicals, which might cause reproductive harm.
Three spoonfuls of red microplastic on a green background.

We Consume a Spoonful of Plastic a Week

You've heard about all the microscopic plastic in our water supply. But did you know there are ways to limit how much you ingest?