Below are today’s Fortean Headlines…
- Hot Topic: Should we be paying more attention to Earth’s Sun?
- Dolphins recognize whistles from old tank mates going back two-decades
- Scientists make world’s smallest Mona Lisa
- Scientists also make mutant virus strains to assess health risks
- A River Flows Through It… and Beneath the Ocean
- Was the “Ghost” of Ronnie James Dio Spotted At a Concert?
- It’s A Funnel Cloud! It’s A Shadow! No, It’s … What Is It?
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Image by Jessie Eastmana via Wikimedia Commons
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Re Scientists also make mutant virus strains to assess health risks
It is hard to tell from the article, but the gain-of-function experiments are only proposals at this time. What the influenza virus reserachers are attempting to do is to make as strong a case as possible to the public and their colleagues to avoid any repeat of the debacle surrounding the H5N1 bird flu enhanced human transmissibility work. The National Institutes of Health will review all requests to fund such work with extreme care. Of course, other funding sources may elect to green light such efforts.
Experiments of this nature, although promoted by some high profile influenza researchers, remain controversial.