Ancient Secrets of the Plague

As we know, far too well, infectious disease pandemics have the power to reshape the world. Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are observing pathogen evolution in real time as more variants arise and spread in waves. Another infamous infectious disease pandemic, simply called “the plague,” has popped up multiple times in history. How it changed the ancient world has intrigued both historians and scientists. In this episode, Niki Spahich from The Scientist’s Creative Services team spoke with Simon Rasmussen, an associate professor at the University of Copenhagen, to learn about his work tracking ancient plague-causing bacteria.