During this pandemic it has been fascinating to learn how much information about disease spread can be obtained from wastewater analytics, even several weeks before patients start turning up in hospitals. It has also been frustrating to learn that the political leadership at least in this country has no interest in this information, as they prefer to wait and see if it really gets that bad, and then take measures only two weeks after it gets really bad.
I wrote a feature on the importance of wastewater monitoring around this time last year, when I still had some hope the information might be used to wipe out Covid-19. Now I revisited the field in a more sober (read: frustrated) state of mind and also looked at the uses of wastewater monitoring in other diseases, present and future. Maybe we have more luck with our leadership the next time a zoonotic disease outbreak threatens to turn into a global pandemic.
This new feature is out now in C&I:
Wastewater monitoring
Chemistry & Industry Volume 86, Issue 2, February 2022, Pages 26-29
access via:
Wiley Online Library (paywalled)
SCI (members only)
Any access problems give me a shout and I can send a PDF file.
In the same issue, on page 36, you'll also find my review of the book Colliding Worlds by Simone Marchi, which is astrobiology-related in that it reports the evolution of the Solar system under the aspect of collisions between bodies.
Wiley Online Library (paywalled)
As the book is more photogenic than a wastewater treatment plant, I'll use the cover here too:
I'm now running a twitter thread with this year's C&I features here.
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