![](https://i.kinja-img.com/image/upload/c_fit,q_80,w_636/08f4f2fe46bc87e7c41a76fd3c821470.jpg)
This week at the Gizmodo science desk, deputy editor George Dvorsky reported on a modification to the famous Drake Equation that produces a rather sobering result about the number of extraterrestrial intelligences in our Galaxy. Health reporter Ed Cara chronicles a mysterious disease from the 1500s that vanished from…