312 | Thomas Levenson on the Mutual History of Humans and Germs

312 | Thomas Levenson on the Mutual History of Humans and Germs

The germ theory of disease is a crowning achievement of science, up there with modern physics, continental drift, and evolution via natural selection. (Even if there will always be cranky skeptics.) But the road to widespread acceptance isn't always an easy one. Why did it take so long between Anton van Leeuwenhoek seeing "animalcules" in a microscope (1670s) to Louis Pasteur's work on pasteurization and vaccination (1860's)? Thomas Levenson is the author of a new book exploring this fascinating history: So Very Small: How Humans Discovered the Microcosmos, Defeated Germs--and May Still Lose the War Against Infectious Disease.

Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025/04/21/episode-312-thomas-levenson-on-the-mutual-history-of-humans-and-germs/

Support Mindscape on Patreon.

Thomas Levenson received a B.A. in East Asian Studies from Harvard University. He is currently Professor of Science Writing and director of the graduate program in science writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the author of numerous books and has written and produced a number of science documentaries for television.


Jaksot(419)

294 | Addy Pross on Dynamics, Stability, and Life

294 | Addy Pross on Dynamics, Stability, and Life

Erwin Schrödinger said that the important characteristic of life is that it "goes on doing something... for a much longer period than we would expect an inanimate piece of matter to keep going under s...

28 Loka 20241h 11min

293 | Doyne Farmer on Chaos, Crashes, and Economic Complexity

293 | Doyne Farmer on Chaos, Crashes, and Economic Complexity

A large economy is one of the best examples we have of complex dynamics. There are multiple components arranged in complicated overlapping hierarchies, out-of-equilibrium dynamics, nonlinear coupling ...

21 Loka 20241h 11min

292 | Jonathan Birch on Animal Sentience

292 | Jonathan Birch on Animal Sentience

It's not immoral to kick a rock; it is immoral to kick a baby. At what point do we start saying that it is wrong to cause pain to something? This question has less to do with "consciousness" and more ...

14 Loka 20241h 10min

AMA | October 2024

AMA | October 2024

Welcome to the October 2024 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters (who are also the ones asking the questions). We take questions asked by Pat...

7 Loka 20244h 29min

291 | Venki Ramakrishnan on the Biology of Death and Aging

291 | Venki Ramakrishnan on the Biology of Death and Aging

Aging and death happen to the best of us, but there are increasing efforts to do something about it. That effort requires that we have some reasonable understanding of why aging happens, and what proc...

30 Syys 20241h 20min

290 | Hahrie Han on Making Multicultural Democracy Work

290 | Hahrie Han on Making Multicultural Democracy Work

It's a wonder democracy works at all -- a collection of people with potentially different interests have to agree to abide by majority vote even when it goes against their desires. But as we know, it ...

23 Syys 20241h 15min

289 | Cari Cesarotti on the Next Generation of Particle Experiments

289 | Cari Cesarotti on the Next Generation of Particle Experiments

As an experimental facility, the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva has been extraordinarily successful, discovering the Higgs boson and measuring multiple features of particle-physics interactio...

16 Syys 20241h 21min

288 | Max Richter on the Meaning of Classical Music Today

288 | Max Richter on the Meaning of Classical Music Today

It wasn't that long ago, historically speaking, that you might put on your tuxedo or floor-length evening gown to go out and hear a live opera or symphony. But today's world is faster, more technologi...

9 Syys 20241h 6min

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