Carl Zimmer on His New Book Air-Borne and What Public Health Experts Learned from the COVID Pandemic

image via New Scientist

February 19, 2025, 11:00 AM

• •Carl Zimmer, author of the new book Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe, discusses the history of aerobiology and how our understanding of the relationship between air and disease has changed over time.
• •Zimmer explains how the field of aerobiology was diverted by biological warfare research and how the COVID pandemic has forced us to reconsider the importance of airborne transmission.
• •He also discusses some of the surprising things he learned while working on the book, such as the fact that pollen floats in the air and that clouds contain bacteria.

Scientists have known about the existence of airborne diseases for centuries, but our understanding of how they spread has been complicated by the history of biological warfare. In his new book, Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe, Carl Zimmer explores the science of aerobiology and how it can help us better understand and prevent future pandemics.

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