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Scientist who helped eradicate smallpox dies at age 89

scientificamerican.com

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Re: Scientist who helped eradicate smallpox dies at age 89

#51

That's got to be one of the greatest legacies in all human history. No politician or other empire-builder comes close.

Food produced by Fritz Haber's Haber-Bosch process (making fertilizer) supports about half of the world's population.

Re: Scientist who helped eradicate smallpox dies at age 89

#52

That's got to be one of the greatest legacies in all human history. No politician or other empire-builder comes close.

Politicians and empire-builders (Elon) is currently standing in the way of human progress and history.

So creating cheap, reusable giant rockets is standing in the way of human progress? Being able to use neural links to restore sight to the blind is standing in the way?

Re: Scientist who helped eradicate smallpox dies at age 89

#53

I'm starting to think that we should be calling it "contained", not "eradicated". Eradication invites the question "Well then, why do we still need the vaccine?"

This is tangential to your point, but smallpox vaccine protects against mpox (the virus formerly known as monkeypox) and the CDC still recommends it for people in certain mpox risk groups.

Re: Scientist who helped eradicate smallpox dies at age 89

#54

Except it wasn't eradicated. It's still stored at the US's Fort Detrick, and in Russian and Chinese bioweapons facilities, too be released as a bioweapon, now that no one has natural immunity anymore.

If you don’t keep it then the first time you’ll get to study it will be when the first bodies are recovered from your cities.

Re: Scientist who helped eradicate smallpox dies at age 89

#55

That's got to be one of the greatest legacies in all human history. No politician or other empire-builder comes close.

Food produced by Fritz Haber's Haber-Bosch process (making fertilizer) supports about half of the world's population.

He has quite a bit of chemical warfare weighing down his record.

Re: Scientist who helped eradicate smallpox dies at age 89

#56

Except it wasn't eradicated. It's still stored at the US's Fort Detrick, and in Russian and Chinese bioweapons facilities, too be released as a bioweapon, now that no one has natural immunity anymore.

If you don’t keep it then the first time you’ll get to study it will be when the first bodies are recovered from your cities.

Coincidentally, that would be the first time it would be urgent to study.

Re: Scientist who helped eradicate smallpox dies at age 89

#57

That's got to be one of the greatest legacies in all human history. No politician or other empire-builder comes close.

Politicians and empire-builders (Elon) is currently standing in the way of human progress and history.

[flagged]

Re: Scientist who helped eradicate smallpox dies at age 89

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Politicians and empire-builders (Elon) is currently standing in the way of human progress and history.

So creating cheap, reusable giant rockets is standing in the way of human progress? Being able to use neural links to restore sight to the blind is standing in the way?

I'm pretty sure that GP commenter was referring to the other stuff.

Re: Scientist who helped eradicate smallpox dies at age 89

#59

That's got to be one of the greatest legacies in all human history. No politician or other empire-builder comes close.

Food produced by Fritz Haber's Haber-Bosch process (making fertilizer) supports about half of the world's population.

There is no reason to believe that a lack of nitrogen was a problem in particular. It seems that most effort was spent on getting fertilizers with phosphorus and other minerals, nitrogen was secondary, as many plants can obtain it from the air. If anything, it allows our modern, heavily cereal skewed diet. Poor nutrition rarely meant an absolute lack of food, most of the time it only meant insufficuent quality, and the green revolution was a massive step backward in that regard

Re: Scientist who helped eradicate smallpox dies at age 89

#60
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We still have another chance for eradication in humans with Polio.

Not if the CIA has anything to say about it: CIA fake vaccination campaign in Pakistan[0] ...The program was ultimately unsuccessful in locating Osama bin Laden. It led to the arrest of a participating physician, Shakil Afridi, and was widely ridiculed as undermining public health.[2][3] The program is credited with increasing vaccine hesitancy in Pakistan[4][5][6][7] and a rise in violence against healthcare workers…

This should be a war crime...
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