The story...

There's something mysterious about the recent cluster of microbiologists deaths.

Our take...

We don't think so. Although the story started with microbiologists who are supposed to have died suspiciously, it's now expanded to include scientists from all over the world, people who know are are associated with them, even 84-year-olds with known heart conditions or a man in his 70's who died after a lung transplant. This is such a huge group of people that you would expect some to be victims of murders, accidents, and other sudden deaths.

To emphasise the point, we used Google to look for reports of teachers in the US, who had died in the previous month (Feb 28th - March 29th). Given that 54 scientists over 10 years, from around the world, is supposed to be a significant figure, how many American teachers do you think were reported dead in a single month?

Plenty, really. In fact we got bored of looking after a surprising 23 (see below), and could have added at least 4 or 5 others if we’d included more old or retired teachers. Only 4 of these are clear murders, but then we've only surveyed one month. The "Murdered Scientists" list hasn't yet reached 20 clear murders in a period stretching from May 9, 1994 to February 8th, 2005 (www.stevequayle.com/dead_scientists/UpdatedDeadScientists.html), and if our sample is representative then we'd expect 516 teacher murders over the same period, 387 if we exclude the Minnesota school shooting. That's a minimum of 19 times the scientist murdered rate.

But are there more teachers than scientists? Actually, probably not. Our American teacher population represents around 3,000,000 people ("Just 21 percent of the nation's three million teachers are men" - http://www.kcrg.com/article.aspx?art_id=96421&cat_id=123), while the “Murdered Scientists” list includes chemists, nuclear scientists, physicists, epidemiologists, University professors, microbiologists, two lawyers and a surgeon. We’d say there are far more than three million people across the world who’d fall into this group, but even if we’re more selective and get this down to one nineteenth of the teacher population (about 158,000 people) the observed results still wouldn't be significant. It just doesn't look like there's anything happening here at all.

Anyway, here's the list of teachers deaths for our test period.

1. AN AMERICAN ESL teacher has been murdered in his San Pedro home, the Daily Breeze reports. Robert M Friedman, 54, taught English as a second language to Spanish students at Banning High School Adult Learning Centre, LA.
Police say there was no evidence of forced entry. ‘It does not look like somebody broke into the house randomly and murdered this victim,’
http://www.elgazette.com/ELNews/NewsStory.asp?StoryID=693

2. Weise then withdrew to the classroom where he had killed the teacher and students and took his own life, the FBI agent said.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050323/wl_afp/usshooting_050323105049

3. Williams...taught at Red Mill Elementary and first grade teacher... Williams was out of the country on vacation for her 49th birthday and while in a swimming pool, some loose electrical wires came in contact with the water and she was killed.
http://www.wtkr.com/Global/story.asp?S=3076122

4. The Philadelphia School District sent counselors to Southwark Elementary School yesterday to help students deal with the death of Miriam Hershberger, a longtime teacher who was struck by a city school bus Thursday.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/2005/03/12/news/local/11117637.htm

5. William Keith Nettles...a devoted father and exemplary teacher, coach and administrator at Hillcrest High School died Sunday when he apparently lost control of the sport utility vehicle he was driving during a family trip.
http://www.al.com/news/mobileregister/index.ssf?/base/news/111148651876172.xml

6. Two people were killed Monday night in a crash that closed the Beeline Expressway. Officials with the Florida Highway Patrol said Michael Crooks of Titusville was driving at more than 100 mph, when he rear-ended a tow truck and went under it, taking off the top of the car, WESH NewsChannel 2 reported.
Crooks and a passenger, Nicole Johnson, were both killed. Johnson was a teacher at West Side Elementary School.
http://www.wesh.com/news/4285352/detail.html

7. A popular health teacher at the Bethel Middle School has died from a car crash in Putnam County, N.Y. New York State police said Richard Mohl, 39, of Brookfield, was killed in the three-vehicle crash on Route 22 late Sunday night. He died at Danbury Hospital.
http://www.nbc30.com/education/4327159/detail.html

8. one of the school's best-known teachers died unexpectedly on vacation... John Crawford taught math at the school for 31 years and was affectionately known as "the math god.".. Crawford died of a heart attack last Monday in Mexico.
http://www.theiowachannel.com/education/4326395/detail.html

9. WEST HARTFORD -- Students at Northwest Catholic High School are learning this morning that...Paige Corrigan was killed in a crash... The cause of the crash is under investigation.
http://www.wfsb.com/Global/story.asp?S=3131695

10. Investigators are searching for the killer of a 23-year-old gym teacher who was knocked to the ground while going to the aid of a friend during a brawl..Scott Winfield of Succasunna, who just started work as a teacher at Burnet Middle School in Union in February, died from his injuries Tuesday morning
http://www.thnt.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050324/NEWS0102/503240386

11. Leola Anne Purser, 52...a popular Arlington elementary school teacher and her 83-year-old mother were killed Wednesday when their car was hit by a truck in Fairview, N.C.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64244-2005Mar24.html

12. Stunned relatives and students wept yesterday for...Aurelia Morales... a popular teacher slain by her cop boyfriend in a grisly murder-suicide in their Queens apartment.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime_file/story/285974p-244879c.html

13. Dr. Hankin, head of Emerson College's science program who received two awards from the college for outstanding teaching, died suddenly of an apparent heart attack Tuesday morning. He was 56.
http://www.berkeleybeacon.com/main.cfm/include/detail/storyid/884618.html

14. The unexpected death of Sumter County’s Teacher of the Year... Teasha Edwards, 31... after the all-terrain vehicle she was driving Sunday afternoon crashed into a steel cattle gap. Officials listed the cause of death as a combination of internal injuries and a pre-existing heart condition.
http://www.mywebpal.com/news/partners/701/public/news619824.html

15. the 29-year-old gym teacher...  Geisler was in great shape...that half-way through the two-mile Shamrock Run, Geisler would collapse and later die..The cause of death has not yet been determined.
http://www.recordonline.com/archive/2005/03/15/deadrun1.htm

16. Jeff Uppendahl...a teacher at Liberty High School in Colorado Springs...is dead after he was buried in an avalanche on Quandary Peak near Breckenridge.
http://www.kktv.com/news/headlines/1406522.html

17. Williamsburg junior high school teacher Louis Vidal was...killed in a motorcycle crash
http://www.nydailynews.com/boroughs/story/294525p-252180c.html

18. ...a Lake Worth prekindergarten teacher died today after collapsing in class before some students. Thirty-seven-year-old Debora Kennedy was pronounced dead at Harris Methodist Fort Worth hospital. Superintendent Janice Cooper says Kennedy was walking to her desk at Effie Morris Elementary School when she apparently lost consciousness.
http://www.kltv.com/Global/story.asp?S=3028570

19. Jennifer Shetter...a Lititz Elementary kindergarten teacher... had unexpectedly passed away the night before. She died of an apparent heart attack.
http://lititzrecord.com/pages/news/local/4/12850

20. Wanda Jean Price, an Oakland school teacher and summer theater actress, died March 6, leaving behind a coterie of friends who shared her experience with breast cancer. She was 59.
http://www.insidebayarea.com/timesstar/localnews/ci_2609526

21. Wausau East High School science teacher Steven Hansen died Thursday morning as a result of injuries he suffered in a downhill ski crash.
http://www.wausaudailyherald.com/wdhlocal/283582165909394.shtml

22. Jo Ann Ross Upton, third-grade teacher and part-time assistant principal at Nolensville Elementary, died Monday of cancer at Williamson Medical Center. She was 51.
http://tennessean.com/williamsonam/news/archives/05/03/67029163.shtml?Element_ID=67029163

23. Barbara Winkel...would ultimately spend more than three decades at the head of a classroom...died March 25 after a brief illness. She was 56.
http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/news/local/11291970.htm