#559 Notes From a Transplant Surgeon

One of the most amazing things modern medicine does is organ transplants: literally taking organs like the lungs or the heart from recently dead people and using them to replace the failing organs in living, critically ill people, giving them a second shot at living a fuller life. How and when did we first figure out how to do this? What does a modern transplant look like? And what is it like to be the…

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Illustrating grassland birds in their habitat

Last fall, I began an illustration commissioned by the wonderful people at Bird Ecology and Conservation Ontario (BECO), a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting wild bird conservation through research and education. I worked closely with BECO’s Executive Director and Wildlife Biologist Zoé Lebrun-Southcott and Research Scientist Andrew Campomizzi to develop their vision of a fairly complex illustration showing an agricultural landscape in two seasons, populated with some of Ontario’s songbirds and their hidden nests. Zoé’s…

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Illustrating grassland birds in their habitat

Last fall, I began an illustration commissioned by the wonderful people at Bird Ecology and Conservation Ontario (BECO), a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting wild bird conservation through research and education. I worked closely with BECO’s Executive Director and Wildlife Biologist Zoé Lebrun-Southcott and Research Scientist Andrew Campomizzi to develop their vision of a fairly complex illustration showing an agricultural landscape in two seasons, populated with some of Ontario’s songbirds and their hidden nests. Zoé’s…

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#558 Good Drugs, Bad Companies

Medicines. We all need to take them. And it seems like the prices are just getting higher and higher. Luckily, generics offer a cheaper alternative. And we are told that they are both the same drug and do the same thing, we assume in the same way. But it turns out that's not really quite true. This week, we're talking with Katherine Eban about her book "Bottle of Lies: The Inside Story of the Generic…

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Flying squirrels of North America

Following our guide to the tree squirrels of North America, we now present: the flying squirrels of North America! Until recently there were only 2 lonely species of flying squirrel in the US and Canada, but in 2017 a new cryptic species was discovered in the Pacific Northwest. Humboldt’s flying squirrel is physically indistinguishable from the northern flying squirrel, but they’re genetically distinct. They don’t hybridize, which is kind of weird because northern and southern…

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Tree Squirrels of North America

For North Americans, squirrels (particularly eastern greys) are probably the most frequently encountered wildlife species. They’re everywhere, and they’re super cute. But did you know there are many more species of this charismatic critter than those most likely hanging out in your yard or local park? That’s not even counting ground squirrels or flying squirrels. And, not all of them like hanging around humans as much as eastern grey or fox squirrels. AND—get this—not all…

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