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Vector-borne diseases shaped human history and reveal race disparities
In December 2015, a yellow fever outbreak began in Luanda, Angola. This outbreak was the largest reported in Angola during the last 30-years. In a new study, researchers examine the ways in which vector-borne diseases, like yellow fever, have shaped society and culture.
Image: Rebecca Hall, CDC
Vector-borne diseases (VBDs), such as plague, malaria and yellow fever, have significantly shaped society and culture, according to an international team of researchers. In a study published in Ecology Letters on Jan. 27, the team used historical evidence interpreted through an ecological lens to illustrate how VBDs have influenced human history, with particular attention to how VBDs have reinforced and exacerbated racism.
Researchers say wildfire smoke is reversing years of air pollution progress
By: Amanda Brandeis
and last updated 2021-02-01 15:30:56-05
SAN DIEGO, Calif. â Record-setting wildfires are becoming a regular occurrence in the Western United States. It s a sobering trend that poses a threat to people across the country, as hazardous smoke pollutes the air.
âFires burn in California, or in Nevada and Arizona, and prevailing winds carry that smoke as far as the Eastern Seaboard. And it can cause measurable changes in PM2.5 concentrations, very far away, explained Michael Wara, a senior research scholar at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.
Gendered division of labor in human societies shaped spatial behavior and landscape use
Navigating, exploring and thinking about space are part of daily life, whether it s carving a path through a crowd, hiking a backcountry trail or maneuvering into a parking spot.
For most of human history, the driving force for day-to-day wayfinding and movement across the landscape was a need for food. And unlike other primates, our species has consistently divided this labor along gender lines.
In new research published in
Nature Human Behaviour, scientists including James Holland Jones of Stanford and lead author Brian Wood of University of California, Los Angeles, argue that the increasingly gendered division of labor in human societies during the past 2.5 million years dramatically shaped how our species uses space, and possibly how we think about it.
Credit: Brian Wood
Navigating, exploring and thinking about space are part of daily life, whether it s carving a path through a crowd, hiking a backcountry trail or maneuvering into a parking spot.
For most of human history, the driving force for day-to-day wayfinding and movement across the landscape was a need for food. And unlike other primates, our species has consistently divided this labor along gender lines.
In new research published in
Nature Human Behaviour, scientists including James Holland Jones of Stanford and lead author Brian Wood of University of California, Los Angeles, argue that the increasingly gendered division of labor in human societies during the past 2.5 million years dramatically shaped how our species uses space, and possibly how we think about it.
By Isabella Backman
Today, the average American is unlikely to spend time worrying about malaria. Although the disease is commonly perceived to be restricted to other parts of the world, it played a significant role in shaping American history. It even helped turn the tide of the American Revolutionary War by infecting so many British soldiers that General Cornwallis was forced to surrender at Yorktown.
The painting,
The Surrender of Lord Cornwallis by John Trumbull, is on display in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. The surrender at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781 marked the last major campaign of the Revolutionary War and was brought about in part by British soldiers contracting malaria. (Image credit: Artist John Trumbull, courtesy Architect of the Capitol)