Blood protects against long-gone killer 1918 flu

Quote :

"WASHINGTON — Nearly a century after history's most lethal flu faded away, survivors' bloodstreams still carry super-potent protection against the 1918 virus, demonstrating the remarkable durability of the human immune system. Scientists tested the blood of 32 people aged 92 to 102 who were exposed to the 1918 pandemic flu and found antibodies that still roam the body looking to strangle the old flu strain. Researchers manipulated those antibodies into a vaccine and found that it kept alive all the mice they had injected with the killer flu, according to a study published online Sunday in the journal Nature. There's no pressing need for a 1918 flu vaccine because the virus has long since mutated out of its deadly form and is extremely unlikely to be a threat anymore, experts said. What's more important in this research, they said, is that it confirms theories that our immune system has a steel-trap memory."

Quote :

"The idea for the new study came from an old TV show, said [Dr. Eric] Altschuler. In an episode of the since-cancelled TV series 'Medical Investigation,' a town improbably gets infected with the 1918 flu and the doctors treat everyone with the reluctantly donated blood of an old butler who survived the original pandemic, he said. That prompted Altschuler, a professor of rehabilitation medicine who doesn't normally study flu, to look into the idea of testing people more than 90 years old for antibodies. The National Institutes of Health, which paid for much of the study, connected Altschuler with experts in the field and he found the elderly antibody donors. The findings make sense, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Md., who wasn't involved with the study. Recent studies have estimated that the human immune system should last many decades, but this gives real proof, he said. 'This is the mother of all immunological memory here,' Fauci said."

http://www.wral.com/news/science/story/3392352/

Wow.

8/18/2008 12:13:47 PM

BTTT

8/18/2008 6:40:51 PM

I saw this and considered bumping it for you, but it's too serious for my tastes

8/18/2008 6:41:12 PM

that's actually pretty cool. thanks for the info OP.

8/18/2008 9:38:33 PM

Well, I thought it was pretty cool, too. But shouldn't the scientists have, you know, thought of this without having to be inspired by a now-cancelled fictional TV show?

The flip side of this story is evidence of a theory that I've had for some time: Television is much more valuable than it ever gets credit for being. These days, the trend seems to be to just bash TV--and the often unfair criticism seems to come from all across the sociopolitical spectrum.

New direction: Find stories that illustrate how TV has made a positive contribution to society and post them here. I'll start: Star Trek, for example, has contributed in a number of ways to our society.

Quote :

"In 1976, following another fan-organized letter-writing campaign, NASA named its first space shuttle orbiter, Enterprise (OV-101), after the fictional starship."

Quote :

"NASA also employed actress Nichelle Nichols, who played Uhura – and is touted to have partaken in the first multiracial kiss with Shatner's Kirk on TV in the episode 'Plato's Stepchildren' –to attempt recruiting African-Americans and women to become astronauts."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_influence_of_Star_Trek

And there's no telling how many young girls and boys were inspired by Star Trek to become rocket scientists, astrophysicists, and so on.

8/19/2008 12:19:49 AM

I also read an interesting article once about how criminals are using shows like CSI to know what sort of things to avoid when committing crimes. So I mean...educating criminals can't exactly be used as a positive, right? But that same article mentioned how the amount of common medical knowledge had drastically improved for the average person due, at least in some small part to medical dramas like ER.

8/19/2008 1:19:32 AM

humanities: 1
sciences: eleventy-billion

8/19/2008 1:26:25 AM

CSI EFFECT -- DOES IT REALLY EXIST?
By: Joshua K. Marquis, District Attorney, Clatsop County, OR and Velva M. Walter, Director of Media Relations, NDAA

Quote :

"ARE THERE ANY POSITIVE ASPECTS TO 'CSI' AND OTHER FORENSIC CRIME SHOWS? Absolutely. Among the positive results of forensic crime shows – more people are interested in forensics as a career. Before these shows became popular, there was a shortage of qualified candidates to become forensic technicians, scientists and pathologists."

Quote :

"Are forensic crime shows making police, prosecutors and other law enforcement officials work harder? In certain cases, yes. The 'CSI Effect' may be making police, criminal experts, prosecutors and others do more forensic testing – even when such testing might be unnecessary. Is this a bad thing? From an economical standpoint perhaps, however, there may be instances where additional testing of evidence makes it far easier for the prosecutor to convince the jurors to convict a guilty defendant."

http://communities.justicetalking.org/blogs/day17/archive/2007/10/16/csi-effect-does-it-really-exist.aspx

There were a number of negatives listed, too.

8/19/2008 1:35:15 AM

Quote :

"Find stories that illustrate how TV has made a positive contribution to society and post them here."

BTTT

8/19/2008 12:41:40 PM