Well, it's been a sort of off-kilter few weeks- tons of snow and messed up travel plans, birthday goings-on and deadlines passing by unnoticed.  Plus I've been trying to kick a head cold for the past few days, which means I haven't had a good night's sleep in a while (Quick aside: those little plastic things you put on your nose to help you breathe at night are awful.  They don't do a whole lot and when you have to pull them off it feels like you're removing half the skin from your nose at the same time.)  I've got a few posts in the works (thoughts on getting older, thoughts on anxiety...coincidence?)  but nothing quite post-worthy yet.  And I'm still taking requests for content while I am defining this space, so if you've got a burning "Why do our bodies do that?" "What's the deal with __________" question, leave it in the comments and I will find out for you.

(For now, I must leave you all so I can make some tea and google "how do I make snot stop pouring out of my face?".)

For Kim, A post about water

The other day I posted on facebook asking for blog ideas from my friends, and the lovely Kim W.- book sale junkie, top-notch conversation partner and (spoiler alert) clean water crusader- suggested I talk a little bit about why safe water is such a huge deal. And as it happens, I have recently been tasked with researching water-borne infectious disease for a group project anyway...which means this is pretty much the perfect opportunity to share what I've learned, because it is an important public health issue. It's a little hard to stomach some of the details, but that's kind of the point- it is easy to take things like clean water for granted when you've never gone without.  It's easy, even as a public health advocate, to get lost in the statistics and not think about what those numbers really mean.

So according to the CDC, nearly 4% of the disease burden around the world is a result of poor water quality.  Nearly two billion people (1.8 billion according to the non-profit Water for People...about a quarter of the world's population)  do not have access to safe drinking water, which means that they are at risk of a host of bacterial, viral, parasitic and fungal infections, not to mention illness caused by environmental toxins. A great many of these individuals are children, whose bodies are ill-equipped to withstand the stress of disease.

The biggest problem in affected areas is that, due to poor sanitation and water treatment, waste from humans and animals is leaching into the water supply, and the majority of these pathogens are transmitted via the fecal-oral route.

So, put more bluntly- lots and lots of people get horribly sick because their water has poop in it. I know we all know that, in theory, but still. I will think about it the next time I complain that the stuff coming out of my tap tastes a little too mineral-y for my liking or when the hot water in the shower runs out before I have a chance to finish rinsing my conditioner.

But anyway, back to the scary numbers. Diarrheal diseases like cholera and giardia and various dysenteries are responsible an estimated 1.5-2 million deaths per year, or roughly 4% of all deaths. This problem is compounded because individuals who are already malnourished or undernourished- another HUGE issue, of course, in many parts of the developing world, are at increased risk of becoming severely ill or dying from dehydration. Same for young kids or the immunocompromised.  Plus it's kind of hard sometimes to rehydrate properly when your water is what made you sick in the first place.

Diarrheal and dysenteric diseases are major players- and usually the most deadly on a population level, but they are not the only threats out there.  Both hepatitis A and E can be transmitted through water,and although they are generally mild in young people they can be deadly for older individuals or those whose immune systems or livers are not functioning adequately. For pregnant women, the risk of acute liver failure from hepatitis E is quite significant.  Additionally, a number of parasitic infections are spread through water.  Schistosomiasis, a helminth infection that likely affects nearly 250 million people (with another 400 million of so at risk), doesn't even require ingestion of water for transmission.  The larvae of these flatworms crawl right through a person's skin while they are swimming, bathing, washing clothes...they are at risk, essentially, any time they have any part of their body in contaminated fresh water. Infections are often asymptomatic, or nearly so, for several months but over time inflammation and scar tissue can lead to damage of the lungs, liver, intestines, bladder, spleen and, more rarely, other organs. Eggs laid by the adult worms within an afflicted individuals gut or bladder are shed into the water, where the cycle begins anew.

I could go on, but I think you guys get the point. Contaminated water is a MASSIVE problem for a pretty significant portion of the population of our planet.  Every once in a while I take a good look at something like this and it sorta knocks the wind out of me for a second. But I'm glad, because it might just make me a more responsible citizen in the long run.

So what do you guys think?  Did you find these numbers surprising at all, or not so much?  If you're feeling inclined to put something toward solving this problem, here are a few good charities:

 Water for People
Schistosomiasis Control Initiative

Writing on purpose is hard!

Also hard?  Writing about parenting when you are not a parent.

I've spent the past three days typing and deleting about a half dozen attempts to put together a meaningful article on attachment parenting co-sleeping and all I have to show for it is a semi-decent intro and a link to James McKenna's website, where readers can go to learn about all the stuff I can't seem to manage to sum up on my own.

The thing is, I am invested in this topic. Every time I hear someone go off on their unsubstantiated tangents about how sleeping near your kids is ridiculous and backward and just the stupidest thing ever, it makes me want to tear my hair out. I really want to write something that might make someone stop and re-think their knee jerk opposition to co-sleeping because the appeal, for me is not only based in the science (of which there is a good amount), but also in the idea that it just makes sense to me on a very fundamental level. And so although there is a bias that I want to avoid having show through in the article, it's in the background coloring my thoughts on the subject, making me excitable and chipping away at my focus. I want to keep piling on the evidence- from physiological studies, yes, but also from ethnographic accounts and psychological literature. Each of these perspectives alone can fill a book. And everything I present can be- and probably is, somewhere in the vastness of the web- refuted with equal conviction.  So there's that to address, too, if I am going to do this right.

The scope of this subject is bigger than I realized, and my desire to responsibly and thoroughly discuss everything about it  is paralyzingly ambitious even without bringing in the fact that my not having children will potentially cost me a lot of credibility with some readers right off the bat.

Of course, this isn't all about co-sleeping at all.  I will likely find myself up against the same challenges when I try to write about vaccines, or mental health or obesity or pretty much any of the topics I would feel compelled to weigh in on in a public forum.  This is about me learning how to effectively deal with false starts and crummy first drafts and meandering paths to a final piece.  It's about me being letting something be not-so-good before it gets good and accepting- really accepting- and taking advantage of the fact that my perspective is limited and a responsible piece of writing in the social science simply should not be crafted just in the microcosm of the author's head.

So there it is.  I'm not sure how much to say, how to say it, or who I should rightfully say it to.  Clearly I am off to a great start.

Ethnography of a millenial anthropology blogger

I've decided for the sake of authenticity (and bookmarks) to keep this url for all posts related to the science writing course and beyond. This means, of course, that Dr. Little will maintain his current access to the occasional stuff-you-don't-necessarily-discuss-with-your-professor, but it also means that I can freely explore the experience of bringing biomedical anthropology to a larger audience without obsessing over where my different voices begin and end.

Which is important, because as I've said before- anthropology is about context.  Holism and relativism are hallmarks of the field; we operate intentionally and unapologetically in the gray areas and I'm going to put my money where my mouth is.  I expect it to be something of a challenge, as I've seen a number of bloggers struggle to find a balanced style that is both natural and professional.  And the topics that are at the heart of biomedical anthropology often necessitate discussion of sensitive topics such as race, class, identity, parenting practices and countless others. I am sure there will be missteps along the way, and I am just as sure that this will be a worthy learning experience that will ultimately make me a better scholar, a better contributor to the larger community and possibly even a better person.

Here's to the adventure.