The Killer We Refused to See

About this episode

Tom Levenson discusses the history of germ theory and its implications for public health.

After bacteria were discovered, it took scientists 200 years to figure out that they cause disease. If scientists had made the link sooner, hundreds of millions of lives could have been saved.  In his recent book So Very Small, Tom Levenson, a professor of science writing at MIT, tells the amazing story of germ theory, and argues that our worldview can prevent us from seeing what is right in front of us – even when lives are at stake. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

People in this episode

Guest: Tom Levenson

Topics covered

• germ theory
• science writing
• public health
• disease prevention
• worldview

Keywords

• germ theory
• bacteria
• disease
• Tom Levenson
• MIT
• public health
• science writing

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: MIT

Books & works: So Very Small

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