How do pandemics start? And how can scientists stop the next one before it happens?
These are two of the key questions explored in a new series from NPR's global health team: "Hidden Viruses: How Pandemics Really Begin."
This series will be featured on the radio and on NPR's website, with new installments through the month of February. Our focus is "spillover viruses" -- spread by a pathogen in animals that jumps to infect humans.
To get the story on these hidden viruses, we sent reporters to Bangladesh and South Africa, to Borneo and Guatemala.
Before you start reading, test your knowledge with our spillover quiz. It's definitely not an easy A -- some of our science-minded colleagues report scores of 3 or 4 right out of the 7 questions.
The initial stories in the series are listed below.
And we want to hear from you. Send us your questions about spillovers, which we may answer in a future story. Write to goatsandsoda@npr.org with "spillover" in the subject line.
9 diseases that keep epidemiologists up at night Thinking about the next pandemic is top of mind for many researchers. Here's a look at the World Health Organization's current list of pathogens with pandemic potential -- and what we know about them.
author interviews
Junior Kannah /AFP via Getty Images
How 'modern-day slavery' in the Congo powers the rechargeable battery economy Phone and electric car batteries are made with cobalt mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Cobalt Red author Siddharth Kara talks with Terry Gross of "Fresh Air" about the conditions for workers, which he describes as a "horror show."
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