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July 6, 2009
Soundbites

Extreme events can spur disease
Climate change could affect public health in many ways, according to participants in the June 23–24 “Factors in Emerging Infectious Diseases in the Southeast” conference co-hosted by Emory. In his talk, CDC scientist Michael Beach focused on waterborne illnesses.

“This increase in extreme events, like floods and cyclones, could have a direct impact on aging water treatment systems here in the United States,” Beach said. “You can see possible consequences in recent struggles by cities such as Milwaukee and Dallas to deal with Cryptosporidium.” —Quinn Eastman

An evening of poets, puns, humor
Poetry Council presented poets Jamie Iredell and Jill Essbaum June 17 as part of the “What’s New in Poetry?” series.

Essbaum’s skilled use of puns in her collection “Harlot” humored the audience and fellow poet Iredell.
“Emily Dickinson said a poem should blow your head off. When I read some of the poems in Harlot, it does just that,” he said. —Tania Dowdy

Surprising spies among us in book
Based on 1,100 pages of notes from a former Soviet spy, Harvey Klehr’s “Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America” contains the stories of “all kinds of government officials who worked for the KGB in the 1930s and 40s in every federal agency imaginable,” the professor noted, speaking at Barnes & Noble in Buckhead June 25.

Three years of research about the spy agency’s American operations yielded a number of surprises, Klehr said. An example: “We establish definitely that Robert Oppenheimer, head of the Los Alamos atomic project, who was often accused of being a spy was not.” —Leslie King