plagued by the plague

Open Archive Day

A recent press release reminded me that the plague is still a problem in Madagascar - something I wasn't really aware of until I wrote a feature on Yersinia pestis a couple of years ago.

The feature is now in the open archives, so anybody with a strong stomach who wants to know all about the plague's past present and future can read it here:

A plague on mankind


Yersinia pestis
image source

PS there is a famous German sea shanty all about being quarantined on a ship with the plague off the coast of Madagascar, but it doesn't appear to exist in any other language. Plus, Wiki suggests that in the historical event that inspired the song, the disease wasn't the plague after all: Wir lagen vor Madagaskar

do protected areas protect species?

My latest feature in Current Biology looks at some protected areas and which measures help to actually protect the threatened species in them. Examples feature Earthwatch research in Madagascar and Belize, as well as the work of Save the Elephants in Kenya.

Full text is freely accessible here (NB: my features remain on free access only until the next issue appears, i.e. normally 2 weeks, sometimes 3, and they return to free access a year after publication) :

PDF file

HTML text

Photo: Earthwatch/Ryan Cox.