Tick sex is gross but other aspects are more disturbing As I studied the respiration of ticks, I found the process uncomfortable. At first, I couldn’t figure out why I felt my lips purse, noticed some tension in my back, and found my focus returning to the cheap faux-leather of my armrest. I wanted distance, […]
Continue ReadingThe Spiracular Tick Plate of Breathing
Ticks might be one of the original and best scuba divers I got my scuba diving certificate roughly around the same time as my driver’s license. Most days, I would rather commute by scuba than driving but that rarely works out for me. The French explorer Jacques Cousteau loved the ocean far more than I […]
Continue ReadingS & M with Ticks! – Ticks of North America Part 1
Pliny the Elder’s beliefs on ticks Since people have looked out at their natural world, they have sought to classify and understand all life, including ticks. Pliny the Elder wrote the first natural history text around 79 AD. He noticed ticks preferred some species of mammal over others. Pliny witnessed ticks feed, massively expand, release […]
Continue ReadingSmoking out the definition of typhus
Typhus, apoplexy, dysentery, dropsy, and coryza are all medical terms of yesteryear, and many of these words have not survived in common medical usage. This is due, in large part, to a lack of specificity in their meaning. Apoplexy, for example, could refer to both strokes and heart attacks. Dropsy is generalized edema. Abdominal dropsy […]
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