In "The
Ambivalent Corpse" and in my upcoming (Summer, 2012) novel "The
Matador Murders", we meet a character named Andrea, a scientist at the
University of the Republic in Montevideo, who is studying affordable methods
for the analysis of the microcystins, a family of toxins produced in rivers,
estuaries, and lakes by various species of blue-green algae. She also gets mentioned in some of my
other blogs. Her character is
based on a real scientist studying these algal toxins in Uruguay who I've been
collaborating with for more than a decade. So, what's real and what's fiction? Let me give you a few hints; these are
references to, and abstracts from, actual scientific papers published in the
peer-reviewed literature that I have copied from Pub Med:
1. From Brena et al., (2006). ITREOH
Building of Regional Capacity to Monitor Recreational Water: Development
of a Non-commercial Microcystin ELISA and Its Impact on Public Health Policy. INT J OCCUP ENVIRON HEALTH 12:377–385.
