To those who are new to my web log, thanks for checking it out. To those who have come from my old site, thanks for clicking through.

This week, while a sickly laptop robbed me of the opportunity to blog, a steady stream of interesting papers were published. Three struck me as particularly fascinating, because they illustrate the different ways evolutionary changes alter our world.

When SARS failed to take hold in the United States, it was easy to feel smug about our defences against new epidemics. The nasty influenza strain now spreading across the United States should puncture that arrogance. We face outbreaks the same way people faced hurricanes in the 1800s–they sweep over us without warning, and we are pretty