Emily Monosson

Emily Monosson

Emily Monosson is a toxicologist and author, a member of the Ronin Institute for Independent Scholarship, and holds an adjunct faculty position in the Department of Environmental Conservation at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. In recent years, her focus has turned toward the impact of industrial age chemicals and technology on food and medicine. Her most recent books are Natural Defense: Enlisting Bugs and Germs to Save Our Food and Medicine, Unnatural Selection: How We Are Changing Life Gene by Gene, and Evolution in a Toxic World: How Life Responds to Chemical Threats. She has published in The Scientist, Aeon, LA Times, American Scientist, and Whole Terrain in addition to academic journals and blogs somewhat regularly at toxicevolution.wordpress.com.


Mosquitoes and Zika Virus: "We Don't Have to Live in Fear"

By Emily Monosson / On February 24th, 2016
Mosquitoes, along with their disease-causing hitchhikers like West Nile, Equine encephalitis, Dengue, and now Zika, are on the move, finding new habitats and naïve populations ripe for infection. Just as Lyme has made tick experts out of us all (no, that one is just a dog tick), we are on a first-name basis with mosquitoes like Aedes and Culex.
Photo Credit: Rockaway Youth on Banner by Flickr.com user Light Brigading

Cutting Back: IP Authors Reflect On Their Carbon Footprints

By Katharine Sucher / On December 17th, 2015
With the end of COP 21 and the signing of the historic Paris Agreement, it’s not just countries that are thinking about how to reduce emissions—individuals are reflecting on how their habits and actions impact climate change as well. Island Press authors shared what they’re doing to reduce their carbon footprints and, in some cases, what more they could be doing. Check out their answers and share your own carbon cutbacks—or vices—in the comments. 

Saved by Soils?

By Emily Monosson / On September 3rd, 2015
This post originally appeared at Emily Monosson's blog: Evolution in a Toxic World We live in an age of pesticide and antibiotic overuse. One outcome is resistance, increasing pesticide use and contamination and fears that we are entering the “post-antibiotic era”. We are addicted to all sorts of commercial chemicals.

Life-changing Chemicals

By Emily Monosson / On March 25th, 2015
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), in green, with human cell, grey.