The Story Behind The Killer Spinach
One of my favorite science writers is Carl Zimmer, who has a great talent for making science clear and accessible to just about anyone. It’s not something that’s easy to do — I once watched another one of my favorite science writers, Kathy Sayer (who was writing for the Washington Post at the time) grill a NASA Public Affairs Officer in NASA headquarters for half an hour, until he got exasperated and tried to blow her off. She scolded him, telling him, “I can’t make my readers understand until you make me understand!” Another 15 minutes later, she understood, I understood, and the next day, in 10 paragraphs, Washington Post readers understood, too.
Issac Asimov, better known as a science fiction writer, shared the “make it clear” talent as well, although he probably had an extra gene for it somewhere.
Today, Zimmer’s posted a story on his blog, The Loom, providing some background on the E. coli outbreak that’s led to the wholesale disposal of spinach in grocery stores around the country:
There’s a fascinating–albeit gruesome–backstory to this outbreak, which I’ve been researching for my next book, a portrait of Escherichia coli. Escherichia coli is regular inhabitant of the human gut (not to mention the guts of mammals and birds). You carry about a trillion harmless E. coli. E. coli has also become the model par excellence for understanding the nuts and bolts of life. Lots of Nobel Prizes were awarded for research on these fascinating bug.
It’s a great read, and definitely worth 10 minutes of your time.
