Here is the latest winner of our “Student of Life” Award, bestowed on a student of BIOL 100 who writes a truly outstanding essay. The recipient for Spring 2018 is Katarina Milosevic, a talented junior with an interest in advertising and a self-declared “history buff.” Enjoy her thorough report on the Black Plague!

---

What Doesn’t Kill You: A Closer Look into the Black Plague

       The Black Plague, also known as Black Death, swept across Europe and the Mediterranean taking the lives of millions. First appearing in 1357, it lingered for centuries and ravaged through densely populated cities killing its host within the first few days of symptoms. Spreading like wildfire, it decimated entire families, villages, and towns leaving nothing behind but tragedy and shocking mortality. Killing one in every three Europeans, the pandemic petrified continents of people and nobody had an explanation for all the agony and suffering endured, until now. The following lays out the very framework that makes up the Black Plague: what it does, where it comes from, how it spread, of what it is made, and how its effects on the past directly explain important aspects of our current civilization. More importantly, it will prove how even only a few staggering genetic characteristics play an essential role in the makeup of all living things, including bacteria. Contine reading →