A Fascinating Germ Theory From 1999

A fascinating article that was published in 1999 in theatlantic.com that discusses the idea that all that ails us is caused by pathogens that live in our body. The dictates of evolution virtually demand that the causes of some of humanity’s chronic and most baffling “noninfectious” illnesses will turn out to be pathogens — that is the radical view of a prominent evolutionary biologist

by Judith Hooper, a former newspaper reporter and magazine editor, is the author of Would the Buddha Wear a Walkman? (1989) and The 3-Pound Universe (1986)

A LATE-SEPTEMBER heat wave enveloped Amherst College, and young people milled about in shorts or sleeveless summer frocks, or read books on the grass. Inside the red-brick buildings framing the leafy quadrangle students listened to lectures on Ellison and Emerson, on Paul Verlaine and the Holy Roman Empire. Few suspected that strains of the organism that causes cholera were growing nearby, in the Life Sciences Building. If they had known, they would probably not have grasped the implications. But these particular strains of cholera make Paul Ewald smile; they are strong evidence that he is on the right track. Knowing the rules of evolutionary biology, he believes, can change the course of infectious disease.

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