In the end, I had to Skype in to this year’s World Conference of Science Journalists conference in Doha, Qatar, and deliver my presentation on the issue of drug trials in developing countries via YouTube video. (You can check it out here.) Here’s what the Guardian newspaper had to say about it. “Ethics left behind as drug trials soar in developing countries,” The Guardian, July 4, 2011.
So honored and flattered to find out that “The Fever” is one of 13 science books long-listed for the Royal Society Winton prize, considered the Booker Prize of science writing. The short-list of 6 will be announced in September, and the winner in November. Fingers crossed!
When my kids were small, we moved to Australia for 3 years, thanks to a post-doc my husband (a biologist) took on at James Cook University in lovely north Queensland. Besides eating a lot of mangoes and hanging out in hammocks, we all became citizens of Australia. Which is why it is now possible for my work to be considered Australian–and for “The Fever” to be excerpted in NewSouth’s 2011 edition of Best Australian Science Writing. Book to appear in November. Thank you Oz!
Picador has released the paperback edition of “The Fever.” I hope this much more affordable edition will find its way into more readers’ hands. Please do pass it on! Check it out at Amazon.com here.
AIDS journalist Helen Epstein takes on malaria politics in this month’s Harper‘s magazine, in a long and thoughtful review essay on The Fever. It’s enough to make a gal re-subscribe (which I just did!)
A strange and lovely film, which I reviewed for The Lancet. Check it out here. It’s worth watching just for the “wabi-sabi,” that is, the Japanese principle of finding beauty in transient and imperfect things, which animates the film. It’s an original for sure: a sci-fi romance about organ transplantation starring Hollywood A-listers such as Keira Knightley, which is unexpectedly beautiful to behold.
https://e360.yale.edu/features/climates_strong_fingerprint__in_global_cholera_outbreaks
My report on cholera’s deep links to the climate–and the ongoing controversy over the origins of the ongoing outbreak of cholera in Haiti–appears in this week’s Yale Environment 360. Check it out here.
Coming this June, Picador’s paperback edition of ‘The Fever,’ complete with spiffy new cover. Keep an eye out!