Tom Levenson
Professor of science writing at MIT and author of So Very Small, who discusses the history of germ theory and the discovery that microbes cause disease.
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Feb 19, 2026 • 39min
The Killer We Refused to See
Tom Levenson, MIT science writing professor and author of So Very Small, traces the long road from Leeuwenhoek’s microscopes to Pasteur and Koch. He tells why early worldviews hid microbes’ role in disease. Stories include Semmelweis’s handwashing crisis, the rise of vaccines and antibiotics, and modern threats like resistance and denial.
