Megan Tomamichel

The Dilution Effect: Placebo or Panacea?

For a long time, ecologists have asked: why are there so many species? How is it possible that there can be so many species of, for example, phytoplankton that exist at the same time? They all use the same resources, like light, carbon and nitrogen, and all are prey to the same types of animals,

Divide and Conquer! A parasitic worm's key to survival

You may have already forgotten about Halloween, but the recent discovery of a new social organization of body-snatching parasites might be enough to send shivers down your spine!  Trematodes are a clade of worms that are almost exclusively parasites of snails and mollusks (with the notable exception of schistosomes); one species is the cause of

Emerging Diseases and Wildlife: How Small Changes Can Have Big Consequences

On my walk home from work, I almost always encounter what I affectionately call “trash creatures”: squirrels that pop out of dumpsters carrying slices of pizza or crows pulling apart garbage bags to get at the tasty morsels inside. While undoubtedly amusing, these incidents may have more cryptic, and sinister, consequences to the health of

Redeeming Typhoid Mary

Typhoid Mary – the woman still infamous in our culture for wantonly spreading typhoid fever in the early 1900's. Newspapers of the time painted her as a villain. However, Mary Mallon, the woman behind the headlines, was more the victim of the circumstances of her birth, her biology, and the culture of medical science. The

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