Word: microbiologists
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...promote the mixing of viruses, which mutate and leap between species. New strains are constantly evolving as viral genes are swapped between host bird species. 'The 1997 strain was a reassortment from three viruses from goose and, we think, the quail,' says Kennedy Shortridge, a University of Hong Kong microbiologist who has studied influenza since 1975 ... The so-called Asian flu, first identified in China in 1957, and the Hong Kong flu of 1968 together killed more than 1.5 million people worldwide ... the concern is that another fatal combination could leap the species barrier at any time ... Shortridge says...
...duracrust gave new relevance to a study published in 2000 by microbiologist Russell Vreeland of Pennsylvania's West Chester University. Vreeland discovered some 250 million-year-old salt crystals in New Mexico that contained tiny quantities of ancient water. The water held preserved spores that sprang back to life once their salt and nutrient levels were adjusted. Whether this is possible in the punishing, radiation-soaked environment of Mars is hard to say, but it certainly makes anything that hints at salt worth a closer look...
Even in safer regions, older volunteers stare down tricky challenges. Feeling restless after her husband's death, microbiologist Bettylene Franzus volunteered in her Tennessee town but felt confined by the work. So she joined WorldTeach and now instructs Marshall Islands high schoolers in science. At 75, she's handling myriad problems, from logistical (her science books crumble in the salt air) to physical (the school has no janitor, so she swabs floors, sweeps coral dust and empties trash bins in her classroom) to intellectual (though she's a science instructor, her students' difficulty with English means she also teaches...
...that can be easily confused with other ailments. Some patients?particularly elderly ones, who often suffer a host of maladies?can go undetected. Toronto shows the damage that can be done with a single slipup. "It really tells you how unforgiving this disease is," says Dr. Allison McGeer, a microbiologist who heads Mount Sinai Hospital's infection-control department in Toronto...
...solve this mystery and discover the real origins of SARS, scientists like Dr. Yi, the energetic microbiologist who plucked some of the civets from Shenzhen food markets himself by grabbing the slippery cats by the feet, will continue testing animals in the province, widening the net to other species. "The sampling work is very hard and difficult," Yi says. "This could take years and years." One animal they may have trouble finding is the civet. Chinese police have cracked down, and the civet cages were all empty at Guangzhou's sprawling Sinyuan market over the weekend...