Didier Raoult and Michel Drancourt argue that their recovery of DNAsequences specific to Yersinia pestis from skeletons believed to date from the mid-14th-century Black Death should put a stop to further “speculation” regarding the cause of the epidemic “unless our work is proved to be wrong.” There are several reasons to question the ancient DNA results reported for the Black Death pathogen by...

The early chapters, beginning with the ubiquitous Bishop Ussher, are largely synoptic. In later ones, Grayson resorts to a finer-resolution microscope. He rounds his sights on the crucial 1810-60 period-bounded by Cuvier's announcement of fossil "time markers", and Boucher de Perthes's forging of a common geo-archaeological context for fixing mankind's antediluvial age. The book comes alive wit...

HIV/AIDS and the threat of biological warfare have refueled interest in the Black Death among professional historians, biologists, and the public, not only for assessing the toxic effects of the bacillus but for understanding the psychological and longer-term cultural consequences of mass death. This article makes two arguments. Against the assumptions of historians and scientists for over a ce...

Cardiovascular disease is the major cause of excess mortality among urban US blacks, but autopsy data comparing black-white differences in underlying pathological causes of cardiovascular death are lacking. We reviewed all 720 adult cases autopsied in 1991 in the New York City Medical Examiner's Office in which the coded cause of death was cardiovascular disease (International Classification of...

The present study investigated the neuroprotective effects of anthocyanins extracted from black soybean (cv. Cheongja 3, Glycine max (L.) MERR.) seed coat against oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD) and glutamate-induced cell death in rat primary cortical neurons. Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release and 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) reduction assays were employ...

OBJECTIVE Although births of multiracial and multiethnic infants are becoming more common in the United States, little is known about birth outcomes and risks for adverse events. We evaluated risk of fetal death for mixed race couples compared with same race couples and examined the role of prematurity and low birth weight as potential mediating risk factors. METHODS We performed a retrospect...

Black patients receiving dialysis for end-stage renal disease in the United States have lower mortality rates than white patients. Whether racial differences exist in mortality after acute renal failure is not known. We studied acute renal failure in patients hospitalized between 2000 and 2003 using the Nationwide Inpatient Sample and found that black patients had an 18% (95% confidence interva...

Researchers previously have investigated the role of race in capital sentencing, and in particular, whether the race of the defendant or victim influences the likelihood of a death sentence. In the present study, we examined whether the likelihood of being sentenced to death is influenced by the degree to which a Black defendant is perceived to have a stereotypically Black appearance. Controlli...