So this is why I'm sick again...

U.S. study shows why winter is "flu season"

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Influenza viruses coat themselves in fatty material that hardens and protects them in colder temperatures -- a finding that could explain why winter is the flu season, U.S. researchers reported on Sunday.

This butter-like coating melts in the respiratory tract, allowing the virus to infect cells, the team at the National Institutes of Health found.

"Like an M&M in your mouth, the protective covering melts when it enters the respiratory tract," said Joshua Zimmerberg of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), who led the study.

Influenza Virus

Experts have long pondered why flu and other respiratory viruses spread more in winter. No one explanation, such as people staying indoors more, or the destructive effect of the sun's radiation in summer, has fully explained it.

The new report, published in the journal Nature Chemical Biology, could lead to new ways to prevent and treat flu, said NICHD Director Duane Alexander.

"The study results open new avenues of research for thwarting winter flu outbreaks," Alexander said in a statement.

"Now that we understand how the flu virus protects itself so that it can spread from person to person, we can work on ways to interfere with that protective mechanism."

More here.

It's Alive!

Oddly, I know quite a few people from Peru. I hear it's beautiful and I've always wanted to go visit the ruins there. However, a bit of weirdness set in when a meteor struck ground near a village near Lake Titicaca (say that aloud without laughing!!!). After the fiery ball plunged through the sky and hit the ground with a loud bang, the villagers went to check it out.

What happened next is a text-book case of how zombies get their start.

Over 200 (although the CBC was reporting 600) villagers became very ill, with vomiting, headaches, nausea and respiratory problems.

Zombies

What is particularly interesting about this story is that scientists can't figure out why the villagers got sick. Some say that the gas from the meteor would have dissipated too quickly. Others doubted the reports of the "sulfurous" odor. In fact, they seem to be suggesting that there was a bit of mass hysteria, much like that of the Salem witch trials, where the sheep/crowd mentality spreads and each person, in this case, also got sick. Some scientists are suggesting it could have been a geyser--earth letting loose some of the hydrothermal gasses below. But what about that fiery ball? If it turns out there is a meteor-like crater but no meteor, what does that mean? Even more curious.

So what's next? Villagers suddenly pass away in their sleep and then revive, a shadow of their former selves?