The Microbe Hunters

Clifford Dobell and the Making of Paul de Kruif's Microbe Hunters

While researching the activities of Paul de Kruif, an American microbiologist and medical science journalist,1 I came across some previously unknown correspondence of interest for the history of malaria research and of the history of medicine generally. It sheds new light on the origin of De Kruif’s book Microbe hunters and more particularly on his description of the discovery of the transmissi...

Kudos to The Virus Hunters

To The Editor: On 6th October the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden announced The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2008, and virologists all over the world had a lot to cheer about. Three “virus hunters” who worked with two different viruses brought honour to virology. Harald zur Hausen for his discovery of "human papilloma viruses (HPV) causing cervical cancer”...

Inquiring Rock Hunters

The Inquiring Rock Hunters project is an example of Citizen Inquiry. Adult citizens designed and ran their own investigations in geology, through the online platform called nQuire, while collaborating with scientists. Analysis of the investigations shows patterns of collaboration and mentoring between novice, intermediate and expert geologists, however further work is needed to create a self-su...

Hunters of Nemrik

LHC Phenomenology for Physics Hunters

Welcome to a first set of notes for my 2008 TASI lectures on the exciting topic of ‘tools and technicalities’ (original title). Technically, LHC physics is really all about perturbative QCD, no matter if you are looking at signals or at backgrounds. When we try to look for interesting signatures at the LHC we instantly get killed by QCD. Therefore, I will mostly discuss QCD issues which arise f...