A DOSE OF DIVERSITY
Scientists are discovering that species extinctions fuel the rise and spread of infectious diseases and hinder medical research
ON A RECENT AFTERNOON, Laura Shappell followed a slender deer trail into a thicket of invasive Japanese knotweed. The plants towered over her head, and their deer-trampled stalks crunched under her boots as she vanished into the mass of pale green leaves. "If I'm not out in 10 minutes, send help," she called back.
A graduate student at Rutgers University, Shappell is a member of a research team exploring the link between biodiversity and human disease. Read more in the August issue of National Wildlife.
