David Quammen on 'Spillover' of animal diseases into humans

October 16, 2012

Hour 1

Avian flu. Ebola. SARS. AIDS. All of us have been exposed, at least in the media, to diseases that have migrated from animal hosts to humans, a phenomenon scientists call "spillover. That's also the name of acclaimed science writer DAVID QUAMMEN's new book. In "Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic," Quammen brings us along to the cutting edge of tracking and understanding these dangerous diseases on a rooftop in Bangladesh, a forest in the Congo, a Chinese rat farm, a suburban woodland in New York and high-biosecurity laboratories.

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