If you've got some time, read this fantastic article from DarkSyde. It's about viruses in general and the coming avian flu in specific. I'm not sure about one point he makes about the avian flu not being as dangerous to healthy people with good immune systems since I have heard the opposite said to be true. But it's a great quick course in virology and the Bird Flu. Plus, there's writing like this:
Viruses have a unique ability to sneak past cell walls, penetrate the nuclear membrane, and locate specific sequences of DNA. There they delicately snip out an unwanted segment, and/or insert a new sequences at a precise location. That's what viruses do, although they usually work against us when they're doing it. But by recruiting them to provide a benefit, disabling an unwanted gene or activating, even creating, a desirable one, we can perform nano surgery on the cell without ever breaking the membrane, much less the skin. This application, called Gene Therapy, holds a degree of promise that is almost incomprehensible in scope. We might turn off cancer cells, eliminate genetic disease after birth, or convert blue-green algae into a factory which turns sunlight and CO2 directly into gasoline, just for dreamy starters.
We're also learning to selectively breed viruses for specific tasks, and in some cases we're now experimenting with engineering them directly. (IDC fans note the term: Selection. Evolutionary biology is absolutely critical in understanding viruses in general and flu specifically. If we relied on Intelligent Design solely to manufacture flu vaccine or anti-viral drugs, create new applications for viruses, and understand how new strains develop and spread ... we wouldn't have any of that. Instead we'd all be staring at dead and dying people and animals exclaiming "Wow! Them viruses sure do look complicated").
Giddyup!
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