by S. Mar­vin Fried­man — The en­ter­obac­terium Yersinia pestis, the causative agent of the plague, was re­spon­si­ble for many ter­ri­fy­ing out­breaks over the course of recorded his­tory, but the most dev­as­tat­ing pan­demic was known as the Black Death. Oc­cur­ring be­tween the years 1347 and 1351, it is es­ti­mated that it claimed about one-third of Europe's pop­u­la­tion, half of that of China, and one-eighth of Africa's. This dreaded dis­ease...