Researchers bring 1918 flu virus back to life

[Guest guest]

...appropriate that this link is .. http://www.xenophilia.com/blog/?p=3322

Xenophilia True strange stuff

Researchers bring 1918 flu virus back to life by xeno735 @ 8:40 pm. Filed

under Biology, Health

Scientists have resurrected the 1918 flu virus in Winnipeg and uncovered

evidence of what made the microbe such a relentless killer - it turns the body

against itself.

In experiments that entailed infecting monkeys, the researchers have shown the

virus sends the immune systems into overdrive, flooding the lungs with fluids

that drown its victims. The scientists say this helps explain why so many

healthy young adults died as the 1918 flu pandemic swept the world killing up to

50 million - more people than died in the First World War.

The research is also expected to provide tips to halt future pandemics and

protect front-line workers. … ‘The procedure was not all that difficult,'’ says

Darwyn Kobasa, a researcher at the Manitoba lab. He says the eight carefully

crafted genes were inserted into cells along with a few proteins. Within hours,

the cells were taking instructions from the inserted genes and mass-producing

copies of the 1918 flu virus.'’It is kind of neat looking through the microscope

and realizing you are looking at something that is responsible for so many

deaths,'’ says Kobasa.

Oh yeah, that’s pretty neat Darwyn. Pretty neat if you, or someone else, wants

to reduce the human population.

“I watched in amazement as a few hundred members of the Texas Academy of

Science rose to their feet and gave a standing ovation to a speech that

enthusiastically advocated the elimination of 90 percent of Earth’s population

by airborne Ebola. The speech was given by Dr. Eric R. Pianka (Fig. 1), the

University of Texas evolutionary ecologist and lizard expert who the Academy

named the 2006 Distinguished Texas Scientist. ” - cache

Lizard expert eh? Perhaps the reptilian aliens really ARE plotting to destroy

humans. Well, I wasn’t at the conference so I suspect perhaps the writer is

taking this out of context. It is only fair to ask Dr. Pianka if he really does

advocate human population reduction this way. I emailed him tonight.

I kind of wanted to ask him if he thinks human sized dinosaurs could have

evolved intelligence equal to or superior to ours (one leg of the reptilian

alien theory) but I thought I’d be more likely to get a reply if I left that

out.

UPDATE: Dr. Pianka replied right away. See above post for results.