ZipTheZipper

Have you seen the Mindfield episode on Vsauce about fear? There was a girl that had a damaged amygdala. She claimed that she couldn't feel fear, and so scientists did a bunch of tests with her to map out fear responses. What they found was that nothing phased her, until they got to suffocation. They simulated it by increasing her blood's CO2 levels to safely simulate suffocation without actually preventing her from breathing, and she became absolutely terrified despite being perfectly safe. They found out that the fear response from an increased level of CO2 (suffocation) is centered in the brain stem while everything else is in the amygdala. The whole Mindfield series on Vsauce is fascinating and worth watching, but when I read your post I instantly thought of that episode.

My perception a few years ago was that TB was a Victorian-era disease that, while not totally eradicated, is now largely under control. I thought this way in spite of, or maybe because of, the annual testing I would receive at my previous job. It's only in the last few years, in no small part thanks to John Green's continuous efforts, that I realize that TB is still a problem, let alone the cause over a million deaths every year.

My question, then, is how do we bring TB back in to the public consciousness in developed countries where it's largely an afterthought, if it's a thought at all? And if we do manage to do that, what do we tell people when they inevitably ask why it's still such a problem when they can see that it's imminently treatable in their own countries? I ask, because to chalk it up to corporate greed or international indifference makes the problem seem insurmountable. How do we make them aware of the problem without making them dismiss it as impossible and therefore not worth acting on?

Loving the book so far. I have to ask: was your idea for Blink inspired by the emergence of apps like Periscope, or did it predate them? It's crazy to think that something like that may only be a few years away.