Sometimes we’ll have to prove that we’re not crocodiles

Adventitious sporulation in Fusarium: The yeast that were not

In immunocompromised patients, Fusarium species cause infections that lead to high mortality. Our case report describes a case of disseminated fusariosis in a neutropenic patient with AML after myelosuppressive chemotherapy, and a neutropenic multiple myeloma patient with Fusarium fungemia awaiting stem cell collection. Both cases highlight the fact that Fusarium can grow as yeast-like structur...

Exceptions That Prove the Rule

“The exception that proves the rule...” This often-misunderstood English language idiom, at least in its “loose rhetorical sense” [1], is highly applicable to the transmission from providers infected with blood-borne pathogens to their patients (ie, the rarity of these events helps characterize and define the miniscule risk for these transmissions in the practice of modern medicine). Decades of...

Crying wolf: concluding that wolves were not restored

In 2007, the USA removed (delisted) the grey wolf (Canis lupus) in the upper Midwest from the Endangered Species List. After 35 years of being considered endangered, these wolves had increased from 750 in 38 400 km 2 of Minnesota (Fuller et al. 1992) to over 4100 inhabiting 110 000 km 2 of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Conservationists celebrated this event as a most significant success. ...

Anaemic starlings have fewer chicks (sometimes)

In the murky waters of the Amazon River, electric eels (Electrophorus electricus) bombard their prey with quick-fire bursts of electricity. Just like a TASER, a rapid volley of electrical impulses causes repeated muscle contractions and immobilizes prey. Eels can then swallow their unlucky victims whole. Although this electrical weaponry is around two and a half times more powerful than the dis...

How Not to Prove the Poincar E Conjecture