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Eight grade Challenge ruined me (Challenge was the gifted program at my school). Fellow blogger Sophia E. knows what I'm talking about. My first year in my new school, and we learned about epidemiology (study of diseases), during second hour. Though it was only for a quarter, my life was forever altered... Okay, that's a bit dramatic, but it really did open my eyes a bit wider.
A book we had to read is what turned my germaphobicness on to the max. It was... The Hot Zone. I told my older brother of the book we had to read, and he said the title made him think of a intense romance novel. And I agreed with him. But, what 'hot zone' really means in epidemiology is a space where bio safety level 3 to 4 pathogens were. This could be referring to an area in a city/country or an island, or even an area in a building that contains hot pathogens. Similar to a 'hot lab', which is a facility that researches on said bio safety level 3 and 4 pathogens. This book is mainly about two different viruses: Marburg and Ebola. At the beginning of the book, it talks about a story of Charles Monet, a guy who somehow got infected with Marburg. The story continues onto to talk about his death and of the infection that his doctor, Shem Musoke, who miraculously recovered from his near death experience with the Marburg virus. After going over the science-side of Marburg the story turns to Nancy Jaax, a verterninary soldier person at USAMRIID (United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, pronounced "you Sam rid"). A outbreak of Ebola happens within a monkey facility in Washington D.C. No one gets infected, by the way. Okay, that's as much as I'm going to reveal.
This leads to what I thought I was never going to do: I am suggesting that you, my dear audience, should read The Hot Zone. It makes you really suspicious, at least it did to me and my whole Challenge class in the eight grade. Maybe we just got suspicious because we had to over analyze it. We had to read this book for class, and I never ever thought I would even suggest that anyone should read it in their free time. But, now that Ebola is in the news today, I thought that you should go ahead, take the instinctive, and enlighten yourself. I have even begun reading it a second time. Also, I am doing a research/argumentative paper about Ebola and why infected shouldn't come back to the USA, for English class. Anyhow, I will be posting that up and you could even use it as a source of sources in case you are also doing a paper about Ebola (I list ALL the sources I used in my Sources Cited). Or, you could just use those sources to learn more about this viral disease. Whatever you chose, I do say that The Hot Zone is a book you should eventually read. This will shine some new light on the whole Ebola thing. And, you should get it before other people catch on and start reading it, then it will be hard to get in the library. The book is a great source of information, and has a rather gory story at the beginning of the book, quite the hook.
I will be posting my paper, or at least part of it, sometime soon. In fact, I'll be doing a whole post about doing the research and such. The post will be partially about the paper and partially about how to have good research habits. This post will hopefully help anybody that struggles to get the information they need when doing research. I hope I will be of some help!
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This leads to what I thought I was never going to do: I am suggesting that you, my dear audience, should read The Hot Zone. It makes you really suspicious, at least it did to me and my whole Challenge class in the eight grade. Maybe we just got suspicious because we had to over analyze it. We had to read this book for class, and I never ever thought I would even suggest that anyone should read it in their free time. But, now that Ebola is in the news today, I thought that you should go ahead, take the instinctive, and enlighten yourself. I have even begun reading it a second time. Also, I am doing a research/argumentative paper about Ebola and why infected shouldn't come back to the USA, for English class. Anyhow, I will be posting that up and you could even use it as a source of sources in case you are also doing a paper about Ebola (I list ALL the sources I used in my Sources Cited). Or, you could just use those sources to learn more about this viral disease. Whatever you chose, I do say that The Hot Zone is a book you should eventually read. This will shine some new light on the whole Ebola thing. And, you should get it before other people catch on and start reading it, then it will be hard to get in the library. The book is a great source of information, and has a rather gory story at the beginning of the book, quite the hook.
I will be posting my paper, or at least part of it, sometime soon. In fact, I'll be doing a whole post about doing the research and such. The post will be partially about the paper and partially about how to have good research habits. This post will hopefully help anybody that struggles to get the information they need when doing research. I hope I will be of some help!
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