The success of The Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Challenge – a yearlong effort by the US CDC to garner formal commitments to tackle the problem of AMR by governments, private companies and non-governmental organisations – was celebrated at an unofficial side event at the UN General Assembly on 23rd September (3 days ago). The initiative itself […]
An article in the Straits Times (reposted from the Washington Post) today caught my eye: British artist Ben Taylor had a piece of work that he had attributed to his infection with Loa loa. He had been unwell for a couple of years following a trip to Gabon in 2013, and had started on a […]
I am one of the ignorant who first learned about Prof Hans Rosling – physician and Professor of International Health at the Karolinska Institutet – only upon his death last year. When the book he had worked on with his son and daughter-in-law was published posthumously, it was very well received and even Bill Gates has […]
Finally had the chance to read Prof Teo You Yenn’s book “This Is What Inequality Looks Like”. It is essentially a compilation of essays based on her work among rental flat inhabitants in Singapore. What started as ethnographic research on poverty in Singapore quickly turned to study on both poverty and inequality, and how these […]
Managed to squeeze in some reading towards the end of the year. These include the celebrated pair of books by Israeli historian Professor Yuval Noah Harari – Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind and Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow. Written as “popular science” books, with engaging simplicity, the first book provides a broad […]
I wished to write about 2 remarkable popular science books on microbes and infectious diseases that I recently read. The first is British science journalist Ed Yong’s “I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life”. An extraordinary book – marred only by the slight (but perhaps understandable) hyperbole – on microbes […]
Just finished reading this interesting and informative book by Paul Sabin, published 4 years ago. Prof Sabin is a professor of history – focusing in particular on environmental and American studies – at Yale. This is a long-form narrative about one of the most famous economic bets in modern history. Population biologist Paul Ralph Ehrlich […]
I attended the launch of Dr Shashi Jayakumar and Mr Olimpiu Urcan’s marvelous book – Singapore Chess: A History, 1945-1990 – two evenings ago at the National Library. The book is both a historical treatise – including interviews with many former top Singaporean chess players as well as archived data from multiple sources – as […]
Only a single book, just before the holiday season. Michael Lewis’ new book, which he spent close to a decade interviewing and researching, is about Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky’s work, and their special relationship. Their work – which continues to have tremendous and wide ranging practical implications – has helped us to understand some […]
A somewhat more varied collection this time, thanks to recommendations from Twitter and gifts from friends. Still too few books read for my liking. The 4th book in Brent Week’s Lightbringer series, which has an novel setting even for a fantasy series. I have enjoyed his writing even though it is not as riveting as Brandon […]
MIPHIDIC 