AtomicQuote

David Quammen Quotes

The first rule of a successful parasite? Myxoma’s success in Australia suggests something different from that nugget of conventional wisdom I mentioned above. It’s not Don’t kill your host. It’s Don’t...

David Quammen

The first rule of a successful parasite? Myxoma’s success in Australia suggests something different from that nugget of conventional wisdom I mentioned above. It’s not Don’t kill your host. It’s Don’t...

From the ecological point of view an outbreak can be defined as an explosive increase in the abundance of a particular species that occurs over a relatively short period of time. Then, in the same bla...

David Quammen

From the ecological point of view an outbreak can be defined as an explosive increase in the abundance of a particular species that occurs over a relatively short period of time. Then, in the same bla...

About Author
David Quammen (born February 24, 1948) is an American writer focusing on science, nature, and travel. He is the author of fifteen books. Quammen's articles have appeared in Outside, National Geographic, Harper's Magazine, Rolling Stone, The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, and other periodicals.
A collection of Quammen's drafts, research, and correspondence is housed in Texas Tech University's Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library. The collection consists of approximately 63 boxes of publicly available literary production, artifacts, maps, and other papers dated from 1856–2014.

Later in conversation he corrected himself: It was in fact 1.1 million pigs. The difference might seem like just a rounding error, he told me, but if you ever had to kill an extra hundred thousand pig...

David Quammen

Later in conversation he corrected himself: It was in fact 1.1 million pigs. The difference might seem like just a rounding error, he told me, but if you ever had to kill an extra hundred thousand pig...

Tags: epidemic, pigs, virus

Appearances have enormous importance, Mr. Kessler. The creation and maintenance of appearances. Appearances govern.

David Quammen

Appearances have enormous importance, Mr. Kessler. The creation and maintenance of appearances. Appearances govern.

Problem peaked in 1952 with an outbreak that killed more than three thousand victims, many of them children, and left twenty-one thousand at least partially paralyzed. Soon afterward, vaccines develop...

David Quammen

Problem peaked in 1952 with an outbreak that killed more than three thousand victims, many of them children, and left twenty-one thousand at least partially paralyzed. Soon afterward, vaccines develop...

Eighty traps seemed like a lot when we started walking. But at the end of two hours, Gordon and Tom and I haven’t collected a single snake. Maybe it’s the drought. Maybe the snake population, here in...

David Quammen

Eighty traps seemed like a lot when we started walking. But at the end of two hours, Gordon and Tom and I haven’t collected a single snake. Maybe it’s the drought. Maybe the snake population, here in...

Darwin wrote: organized beings represent a tree.

David Quammen

Darwin wrote: organized beings represent a tree.

One animal died and, after it tested positive for Reston virus, forty-nine others housed in the same room were euthanized as a precaution. (Most of those, tested posthumously, were negative.) Ten empl...

David Quammen

One animal died and, after it tested positive for Reston virus, forty-nine others housed in the same room were euthanized as a precaution. (Most of those, tested posthumously, were negative.) Ten empl...

بعد أسبوع من موت آني ابنة داروين بينماالصورة لا تزال حاضرة في الذاكرة، كتب داروين مذكرة خاصة قصيرة تسجل القليل من مفاتنها، وعاداتها، وسماتها، ورقصاتها حوله بطول الممشى الرملي، وتدقيقها صعب الإرضاء، و...

David Quammen

بعد أسبوع من موت آني ابنة داروين بينماالصورة لا تزال حاضرة في الذاكرة، كتب داروين مذكرة خاصة قصيرة تسجل القليل من مفاتنها، وعاداتها، وسماتها، ورقصاتها حوله بطول الممشى الرملي، وتدقيقها صعب الإرضاء، و...

Two men, on opposite sides of the world, had made the same great discovery at the same time.

David Quammen

Two men, on opposite sides of the world, had made the same great discovery at the same time.

Without explaining what’s on my mind, I ask Nafus and Schreiner: Have they seen any recent invasions by exotic arthropods, or any dramatic population outbreaks among native ones? I inquire about arthr...

David Quammen

Without explaining what’s on my mind, I ask Nafus and Schreiner: Have they seen any recent invasions by exotic arthropods, or any dramatic population outbreaks among native ones? I inquire about arthr...

There’s a voice that says: So what?It’s not my voice, it’s probably not yours, but it makes itself heard in the arenas of public opinion, querulous and smug and fortified by just a little knowledge, w...

David Quammen

There’s a voice that says: So what?It’s not my voice, it’s probably not yours, but it makes itself heard in the arenas of public opinion, querulous and smug and fortified by just a little knowledge, w...

Tags: darwin, extinctions, future, so what

Molecular phylogenetics.

David Quammen

Molecular phylogenetics.

The protein wrap is known as a capsid. The

David Quammen

The protein wrap is known as a capsid. The

Lyme disease, psittacosis, Q fever: These three differ wildly in their particulars but share two traits in common. They are all zoonotic and they are all bacterial.

David Quammen

Lyme disease, psittacosis, Q fever: These three differ wildly in their particulars but share two traits in common. They are all zoonotic and they are all bacterial.

A plate of Ebola virions mixed with Hendra virions would resemble capellini in a light sauce of capers.

David Quammen

A plate of Ebola virions mixed with Hendra virions would resemble capellini in a light sauce of capers.

Not just Machupo but also Marburg (1967), Lassa (1969), Ebola (1976, with Karl Johnson again prominently involved), HIV-1 (inferred in 1981, first isolated in 1983), HIV-2 (1986), Sin Nombre (1993), H...

David Quammen

Not just Machupo but also Marburg (1967), Lassa (1969), Ebola (1976, with Karl Johnson again prominently involved), HIV-1 (inferred in 1981, first isolated in 1983), HIV-2 (1986), Sin Nombre (1993), H...

A high jeopardy of extinction comes with territory. Islands are where species go to die.

David Quammen

A high jeopardy of extinction comes with territory. Islands are where species go to die.

The basic point is so important I’ll repeat it: RNA viruses mutate profligately.

David Quammen

The basic point is so important I’ll repeat it: RNA viruses mutate profligately.

Lyme disease, psittacosis, Q fever: These three differ wildly in their particulars but share two traits in common. They are all zoonotic and they are all bacterial. They stand as reminders that not ev...

David Quammen

Lyme disease, psittacosis, Q fever: These three differ wildly in their particulars but share two traits in common. They are all zoonotic and they are all bacterial. They stand as reminders that not ev...