virus

In November of last year, scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory switched on Roadrunner, the world's fastest computer. IBM and the Department of Energy built the machine to model nuclear explosions, but two new studies, both released today, are proof that the computer's massive power has been at least as devoted to peaceful science as to simulating thermonuclear weapons.

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A decade ago, the bells of doom started to sound for carefree, swinging koalas. A new, HIV-like retrovirus had begun to attack the koala population, decimating its ranks and threatening extinction.

Now, the Australian researchers have launched an effort to stop the spread of the virus before it's too late.

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Using special techniques developed to sequence RNA, researchers at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, have published the first complete genome of HIV. Laying bare the complete genetic make up of the virus opens up a new era of research, drastically widens the possible experiments that scientists can perform on the virus, and may significantly accelerate our understanding of how HIV infects humans and evades our immune system.

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After three years of piecing together hundreds of individual x-ray images, researchers were able to produce the first high-resolution picture of the five million atoms that make up a virus's protective shell. The yellow- and red-colored ribbons were highlighted to illustrate how four identical proteins join to form the building block of the blue-hued shell, or capsid, of the Ps V-F penicillin fungus-attacking virus.

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On May 5th, Konan Michel Yao was arrested for smuggling vials from a Canadian ebola research center into the United States. However, Mr. Yao wasn't a terrorist attempting to commit a biological weapon attack. Instead, Mr. Yao was a government scientist, en route to his new job studying biodefense at the National Institutes of Health. Additionally, he didn't even have any ebola in his possession.

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Where does the flu come from? Scientists at the University of Cambridge and the World Health Organization's Global Influenza Surveillance Network tracked the migrations of flu viruses and discovered that the most common originate in East and Southeast Asia and spread in a distinctive pattern around the world. Understanding how these viruses evolve and travel will lead to better vaccines against flu epidemics that currently infect 5 to 15 percent of the world's population each year.

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We know lipids as the molecules in cholesterol, fats, oils, and waxes (different from fatty acids, like the unhealthy transfats New York City recently banned). We're maybe less familiar with them as a key structural component of cell membranes. They are not only part of the mix that makes up the semipermeable membrane between the cell wall and the guts of a cell, they're also responsible for shielding a cell's organelles, enclosing each in a protective membrane.

Lipids also make up the protective outer layer on viruses (called an envelope). Read Full Story ]

The Storm Worm, malicious software spread via spam, has been so active in recent weeks that the FBI has even gotten involved. The agency posted an alert on the home page of its Web site Tuesday: If you unexpectedly receive a Valentines Day e-card, be careful. It may not be from a secret admirer, but instead might contain the Storm Worm virus.

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What do you think happens when you connect your computer to the Internet?

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If it´s a smartphone,
you bet. In 2004, virus writers released Cabir, the first proof-of-concept virus that could infect smartphones through
an open Bluetooth connection.
So far, Cabir and the 175 other smartphone viruses in the wild haven´t done enough damage to warrant headlines. But it´s only a matter of time before there´s enough financial upside for criminal hackers to begin seriously attacking smartphones. And then, watch out.

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