Dan Koeppel

This book features five peer-reviewed reviews on understanding and tackling Fusarium wilt in global banana production. The first chapter examines the way in which monoculture has affected the banana industry and discusses the available banana varieties, the advent of the Cavendish variety and the need to develop new banana varieties. The second chapter provides a comprehensive overview of the history, epidemiology and management of F. oxysporum forma specialis cubense Race 1 and 2 – the fungus which causes Fusarium wilt of banana. The third chapter documents the spread of Tropical Race 4 throughout the major Cavendish banana-producing regions of the world and highlights the importance of breeding for resistance to diversify the banana crop for the export trade. The fourth chapter reviews the potential of particular breeding technologies, such as genetic engineering and induced mutagenesis, to improve the performance of Cavendish cultivars and overcome current biological and environmental challenges. The final chapter considers the challenges associated with developing hybrid banana varieties with improved properties and uses insights from Embrapa’s banana breeding programme in Brazil to highlight these challenges and how they could possibly be mitigated.

An urgent, on-the-scene account of chaos and compassion on the front lines of ground zero for Covid-19, from a senior doctor at New York City's busiest emergency room "Remarkable and inspiring . . . We're lucky to have this vivid firsthand account."--A. J. Jacobs, bestselling author of The Year of Living Biblically When former New York Times journalist Dan Koeppel texted his cousin Robert Meyer, a twenty-year veteran of the emergency room at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, at the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis in the United States, he expected to hear that things were hectic. On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being overwhelmed, where do you think you are? Koeppel asked. Meyer's grave reply--100--was merely the cusp of the crisis that would soon touch every part of the globe. In need of an outlet to process the trauma of his working life over the coming months, Meyer continued to update Koeppel with what he'd seen and whom he'd treated. The result is an intimate record of historic turmoil and grief from the perspective of a remarkably resilient ER doctor. Every Minute Is a Day takes us into a hospital ravaged by Covid-19 and is filled with the stories of promises made that may be impossible to keep, of life or death choices for patients and their families, and of selflessness on the part of medical professionals who put themselves at incalculable risk. As fast-paced and high-tempo as the ER in which it takes place, Every Minute Is a Day is at its core an incomparable firsthand account of unrelenting compassion, and a reminder that every human life deserves a chance to be saved.

In the vein of Mark Kurlansky's bestselling Salt and Cod, a gripping chronicle of the myth, mystery, and uncertain fate of the world's most popular fruit In this fascinating and surprising exploration of the banana's history, cultural significance, and endangered future, award-winning journalist Dan Koeppel gives readers plenty of food for thought. Fast-paced and highly entertaining, Banana takes us from jungle to supermarket, from corporate boardrooms to kitchen tables around the world. We begin in the Garden of Eden--examining scholars' belief that Eve's "apple" was actually a banana-- and travel to early-twentieth-century Central America, where aptly named "banana republics" rose and fell over the crop, while the companies now known as Chiquita and Dole conquered the marketplace. Koeppel then chronicles the banana's path to the present, ultimately--and most alarmingly--taking us to banana plantations across the globe that are being destroyed by a fast-moving blight, with no cure in sight--and to the high-tech labs where new bananas are literally being built in test tubes, in a race to save the world's most beloved fruit.

What drives a man to travel to sixty countries and spend a fortune to count birds? And what if that man is your father? Richard Koeppel's obsession began at age twelve, in Queens, New York, when he first spotted a Brown Thrasher, and jotted the sighting in a notebook. Several decades, one failed marriage, and two sons later, he set out to see every bird on earth, becoming a member of a subculture of competitive bird watchers worldwide all pursuing the same goal. Over twenty-five years, he collected over seven thousand species, becoming one of about ten people ever to do so. To See Every Bird on Earth explores the thrill of this chase, a crusade at the expense of all else--for the sake of making a check in a notebook. A riveting glimpse into a fascinating subculture, the book traces the love, loss, and reconnection between a father and son, and explains why birds are so critical to the human search for our place in the world. "Marvelous. I loved just about everything about this book."--Simon Winchester, author of The Professor and the Madman "A lovingly told story . . . helps you understand what moves humans to seek escape in seemingly strange other worlds."--Stefan Fatsis, author of Word Freak "Everyone has his or her addiction, and birdwatching is the drug of choice for the father of author Dan Koeppel, who writes affectionately but honestly about his father's obsession."--Audubon Magazine (editor's choice) "As a glimpse into human behavior and family relationships, To See Every Bird on Earth is a rarity: a book about birding that nonbirders will find just as rewarding."--Chicago Tribune