Zoonoses, or infectious diseases that can pass from animals to humans, are commonplace and a danger to public health; the list of zoonotic diseases includes Ebola, influenza, SARS, MARS, HIV to name only a few.

They are also the subject of David Quammen’s book “Spillover : Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic”, and the series of short videos produced by The Weather Channel, called “The Virus Hunters”.

In this RS! hangout we had our usual lively and wide-ranging discussion about these diseases, how to write about important scientific subjects without sensationalism, and all the other things that might come up in that conversation.
Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic

We recorded this episode in collaboration with Scientific American, and we are grateful to them for their support and most excellent production help. (Btw, Google’s autoswitching of the camera wasn’t working again, so our producer was doing it all by hand, and did a splendid job!)

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