The difference between a flu virus that kills millions, and one that kills only a few comes down to just two amino acid changes, researchers say.The finding could allow scientists to stay one step ahead of an H5N1 flu pandemic by screening for the specific mutations that would enable it to spread.A new study investigating the difference between the 1918 pandemic flu virus – which killed at least 50 million people – and a virus which kills but does not spread turned out to be two small mutations on the virus’s surface. Just two amino acids – the building blocks of protein – need to change on the virus’s surface in order to allow it to spread easily between people, the researchers found.The discovery comes as H5N1 continues to kill. Indonesia this week declared a state of emergency, as it counted its 63rd death. Sub-Saharan Africa confirmed its first death, a 22 year old woman in Lagos, Nigeria.Nose and throat
Haemagglutinin, the main surface protein on flu viruses, binds to sugars on cells in the nose and lungs; the virus then enters the cells and replicates. Bird flu prefers a sugar called 2,3-sialic acid. Flu adapted to mammals attaches better ...   more »

VIENNA, Austria — Technical crews have hauled centrifuges into Iran's vast underground Natanz complex and were on the threshold of launching a program that could be used to create nuclear arms, diplomats said Friday.Hundreds of technicians have been "working feverishly" in recent weeks in the bunker-like hall beneath the desert near the central Iranian city of Natanz, said a diplomat accredited to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear monitor.By Thursday, they had installed and tested the pipes, wiring, control panels and air conditioning, setting the stage for hooking up the centrifuges that spin uranium into enriched levels.Iran says it wants to develop enrichment to generate power, with Natanz as the centerpiece of a program first to link 3,000 centrifuges, and then ultimately to expand to 54,000. The United States and other countries fear Tehran will enrich to a higher level than needed for energy and use the material for the fissile core of nuclear warheads.The recent activity in Natanz increases the tension between Tehran and the world's major powers over the Islamic republic's nuclear program, and will likely spur U.S. efforts to sharpen existing U.N. sanctions on Iran for its defiance of a Security Council demand that ...   more »

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | It was one of those American Jewish dust-ups that play out along predictable lines and concluded with a predictable outcome. The left outrages the right, and the right responds in knee-jerk fashion by calling for banning the left from something that most people had never heard of. In the end, the left emerges with their right to speak triumphantly undiminished while the right skulks away muttering.
Seen that movie already? So have we all. Ad nauseam.
But sometimes, even these boring ideological struggles are worth looking into. And the more you think seriously about the underlying issues, the less comfortable you may be with the stereotypical outcome.
In one recent case, the role of the right was played by the Zionist Organization of America, and its outspoken and controversial leader Morton Klein.
Klein who has often been portrayed by rival groups and press critics as something of a bully and an enforcer of a pro-Israel standard that few support, was the perfect antagonist for the left-wing Union of Progressive Zionists as they battled recently over whether or not the UPZ should be allowed to remain part of something called the Israel on Campus Coalition.
The coalition is a ...   more »