RESEARCH ON FLU VIRUS

How can one bug combine genetic material from pigs, birds and humans to become so dangerous? Think of flu viruses as promiscuous, species-jumping, disguise-wearing contestants in a reality-TV show titled "Evolution Gone Wild." Virus-fighters are scrambling to keep pace, using analytical techniques that work more quickly than ever.

This show is no comedy, as illustrated by today's news about the first U.S. death in the swine-flu epidemic and the escalation of the World Health Organization's pandemic alert status. But knowing how the virus game is played could help you understand issues ranging from the difference between vaccines and antivirals to the reasons why you can't get the flu from a pork chop.

Viruses are outfitted to pry their way into your cells, hijack the protein-making machinery inside, then break their way out and proliferate. The key package is the set of RNA molecules lurking inside the virus' shell. Those single-helix RNA molecules contain the instructions for assembling a cell's proteins into more viruses.

Flu viruses are so hard to get a handle on because they can swap bits of RNA inside the cell, creating a fresh genetic patchwork that emerges as a new virus strain. The fact that the flu virus depends on RNA rather than DNA increases the likelihood of mutation, because the RNA doesn't even try to correct the errors that crop up during replication. It just lets the evolutionary chips fall where they may.

Your immune system can create antibodies that lock onto a virus and keep it from breaking into your cells. But the antibodies won't immediately come to the rescue if the virus has disguised itself through genetic recombination.

That's where vaccines enter the picture: They can sensitize your immune system to recognize the virus in a new disguise. The first step in making a vaccine is to see through that disguise. And fortunately, the quickening pace of genetic analysis is streamlining that part of the process, making it possible to track down a flu virus' identity in hours rather than days or weeks.

The rapid response paid off when it came to identifying the virus behind this month's flu outbreak. "The first specimens took roughly six hours from when the box was opened," David Daigle, a spokesman for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told me via e-mail today.

The CDC's lab had its sequencers primed and ready to go in advance - first to identify the virus as a swine-flu strain, then to get a complete genetic sequence. "Looking at that genetic sequencing data, you can draw conclusions about the origins of this virus," said John Treanor, a virus expert at the University of Rochester.

The virus was classified as an H1N1 type - the same general type that was seen during the 1976 swine-flu outbreak, but with some novel twists. CDC official Nancy Cox said the virus' RNA mixed together bits from North American avian flu and swine flu, at least one bit from human flu, and at least two bits from Asian and European swine flu.

How did all those bits get mixed together? Pigs are regarded as particularly good "mixing vessels" for RNA swaps, because they can contract flu viruses from humans and birds as well as other swine. All those bits of RNA can recombine within the pigs' cells, resulting in lots of possible disguises for the resulting viruses. One of those genetic disguises was so successful that the virus made another species-crossing jump from pigs to humans.

Now that the virus' genetic sequence has been decoded, it can be used as a fingerprint to track its spread. "For the first time in history, we can track the evolution of a pandemic in real time," WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said at a news conference today.

Just as a refresher, here are some other scientific flu facts:
Flu infections are a fact of life for pigs, but swine flu is rarely passed along directly to humans: It takes just the right genetic twist for the virus to make the jump between species. Swine-flu virus is not passed through food. "Eating properly handled and cooked pork and pork products is safe. Cooking pork to an internal temperature of 160 degrees F kills the swine flu virus as it does other bacteria and viruses," the CDC says in its swine-flu briefing. The concern about swine-to-human transmission has more to do with being in contact with live pigs.

Vaccines train your immune system to block the molecular machinery that viruses use to break their way into your cells (a.k.a. hemagglutinin, the "H" in H1N1). Those vaccines are not designed to stop an infection once it's started. In contrast, antiviral drugs target the machinery that viruses use to break out of your cells (a.k.a. neuraminidase, the "N" in H1N1). Those drugs stop the virus' life cycle in its tracks. The current manifestation of swine flu can be stopped by the antivirals Tamiflu and Relenza (but not by amantadine or rimantadine).

As a flu virus spreads, the chances of further mutation become greater, experts say. And that means there's a chance that a deadlier virus could emerge. That's why it's particularly important to limit the spread of this latest swine-flu virus. But viruses aren't all bad: In fact, evolutionary biologists have seen signs that viruses can give some species new genetic capabilities - and viruses have been used intentionally to help humans.

Finally, here's a list of resources that delve into the science of flu viruses - including some great visualizations showing how the viruses do their thing:
Antigenic shift and antigenic drift explained 
Associated Press: Swine flu interactive 
Washington Post: Flu's severity studied 
Ars Technica: An influenza biology primer 
Swine flu updates from ScienceInsider 
Viral video from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute 

Samsung LED TV

For those who have shown interest in the newly unveiled Samsung LED TV we featured just a few days ago, here are two videos to get your appetite going even further! The short clip below was taken by someone I believe in Asia where the tellies are already available and boy are they thin!

Terminator Salvation Trailer HQ

“As the player, you will face many different scenarios, you will be hunted, face superior enemies, endure assaults and work your way to a solution.”

Movies don't have a great history within the game industry. Whether playing a game based on a movie or watching a movie based on a game, the results are rarely as epic as the promotional trailer. Terminator is one of the rare exceptions. When T2: The Arcade Game arrived, few could keep their hands off this non-stop, hugely destructive shooter. Even with primitive graphics and gameplay technology, few titles can compare, at home or in the now-dead arcade.

Unlike T2, Terminator Salvation, the action game based on the upcoming movie, isn't an on-rails shooter. But it has every chance of continuing its predecessor's legacy. "We have focused on conveying emotions relevant to the gameplay," said Per Juhlén, Producer of Terminator Salvation. "There is always a delicate balance when conveying emotions in a game without interfering with the actual gameplay.

"We worked hard on conveying the feeling of fighting a superior power and the feeling of satisfaction when a goal is achieved against all odds. This is where we used the more cinematic components, just to ensure we did not create frustration or poorly staged game play scenarios."

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves trailer

Pre-E3 2009 Preview

Arguably (considering that the developer and publisher has not shown off everything coming down the pike in the coming year), SCEA saved the best for last during the pre-E3 event held in mid-April at the Andaz Hotel in West Hollywood. But not only is there speculation about what might be lurking (including more hands on with God of War III), but what the company showed was only the multiplayer and co-op portions of the upcoming Naughty Dog title, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.

However, from a purely visceral standpoint, what was shown was clearly the crowning jewel of the day. Uncharted 2 marks the first time that the title has moved into the multiplayer arena, but though the modes of play were nothing truly new – there was the team deathmatch and a version of capture the flag entitled Plunder – what was remarkable was how the game played out. The graphics were not dumbed down for multiplayer. Rather, the multiplayer elements sported the same detailed environments and same smoothness that players will experience in the single-player portion of the game.

A representative for Naughty Dog gave a very brief presentation to the game, stating that the development team was pushing the technology of the PlayStation 3 with the game and that players would experience a new style of gameplay than what they were used to.Uncharted is very much an action-adventure built within the same style of treasure-oriented missions that set the Tomb Raider franchise apart from other titles, but rather than copying the Lara Croft game, Uncharted has taken its own course with a cast of recurring characters that give the game personality. 

Nathan Drake is the central protagonist of the game. As the storyline goes:

“Down on his luck, Drake is lured back into the treacherous world of thieves and mercenary treasure-seekers he had sought to leave behind. When a mysterious artifact propels Drake on an expedition to find the legendary Himalayan valley of Shambhala, he finds himself embroiled in a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse against a fugitive war criminal who’s after more than just the fabled riches of the lost city.”

But that’s central to the single-player element … which was not available for play at the pre-E3 event. The multiplayer was fast-paced, a graphical treat and a whole lot of fun to play.

Mac OS X users - try out Avast Antivirus Mac Edition if you’re worried

We received a few messages from Mac users last week worried about the conflicker worm. While we are not aware that Mac OS X are susceptible to its infection nor are we aware about many viruses that can infect Macs, we believe some of you like some suggestions on choosing a reliable antivirus software / app for Mac OS X.

Avast Antivirus Mac Edition has the same ICSA Certified scan engine as all Avast antivirus products, offering protection against the latest and legacy virus, malware, Trojan horse, and spyware risks. Virus definitions and scanning capabilities are updated often (sometime several times per day, depending on current threats), so you can rest assured that your Mac is protected at all times. All you need to do is install, configure once (if you want to change the default settings) and forget about malware being a problem.

Some key features of Avast Antivirus Mac Edition includes:

Full on-access scanning - which scans files as you access them, to make sure they are safe from infection
On-demand scanning - for scheduled or ad-hoc scans of your system volumes
Mail protection-integrated mail protection can stop infection at one of the most vulnerable access vectors
Virus Chest - a safe storage place for infected or suspected files, where they cannot harm your system
Fully automatic updating of the program and virus definitions and full scanner preference control
Under-the-hood technology features include: native execution of virus database on Intel platform Macs, with fast emulation on PowerPC of assembler-level parts; multi-threaded scanning daemon; industry leading unpacker support (for archives); able to upgrade the definitions database, even while doing background scanning; application itself multi-threaded; fail-safe updating architecture (if the daemon fails to do an update, the main application will do it instead); kernel extension architecture for capturing after-close events on modified files; optimized software architecture, including non-blocking system calls; and the program is designed for speed and non-degraded system performance.

Unfortunately, unlike the PC version of Avast which does have a freeware version for home users, its Mac OS X edition isn’t absolutely and consists of a 60-day trial. If you think you’d like to try it out, click here for more info over at Avast.