Reconstructed monster to understand it!

1918 Killer Flu Reconstructed from npr.org

"A flu virus that killed tens of millions worldwide after it appeared in 1918 has been recreated in the virological equivalent of the Jurassic Park story. Scientists rebuilt it from pieces of genetic material retrieved from the lungs of people who died 87 years ago. Researchers writing in the journals Science and Nature say the tightly guarded replica is even more virulent than they expected.
Yet public health officials aren't worried that the 1918 flu will again terrorize the population. It's no longer a new virus, and most people in the world have some immunity to the H1N1 virus family.
But scientists are interested in what it can reveal about future pandemics... and they say the copy of the 1918 flu bears an ominous resemblance to the bird flu virus now circulating in Asia."

Listen to the whole program to get the whole picture. This is a good prgram "All Things considered" on npr