influenza
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A breath monitor could soon be used to detect the flu
What if you could pick up a device from the drug store that could tell you if you have the flu and save you a trip to the doctor? That's one possibility for a breath-analyzing gadget that University of Texas at Arlington professor Perena Gouma has developed. The device is similar to the breathalyzers law enforcement use to determine if you've had too much to drink. The difference is that it employs low-cost sensors to analyze a person's breath and isolate biomarkers that can indicate whether or not you have the flu.
Scientists watch an immune system fight the flu in real time
To date, biologists have typically had to study the progress of a virus through indirect means, such as studying the antibodies -- actually tracking the viruses themselves has been difficult. However, researchers say they've found a way to follow the progress of a virus in real time. By using multiphoton microscopy in tandem with a laser and fluorescence, the team monitored influenza virus in a mouse's trachea (where the transluency made imaging possible) through the infection and immune system response.
IBM developed a 'magic bullet' to combat viral infections
IBM Research and the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) in Singapore have created a new chemical "macromolecule" that could aid in the fight against a wide range of viral diseases like Ebola, Zika, dengue fever, herpes or even influenza. The new chemical was "designed from the ground up" to combat viruses in three ways: by preventing it from infecting healthy cells, stopping the virus's replication and finally boosting the body's immune system to help it fight the virus on its own.
Swine Flu worries? Ian Bogost's Killer Flu will make you feel better
A few months back, Ian Bogost and his studio, Persuasive Games, were tasked with creating a game for the UK Clinical Virology Network to teach folks about seasonal and pandemic flus. Named Killer Flu, the game operates on a hexagonal board and, while learning about how to infect a populace by playing as the flu itself, the player is tasked with infecting various community members and sending them into buildings to infect their comrades.His timeliness is incredible, considering only a few months have passed and we've nearly got a pandemic on our hands with the Swine Flu. Okay, okay, we're exaggerating a bit. If anything, Bogost's game schools our panic-inclined brains to the relative difficulty a virus faces in becoming an actual threat. "The truth is, pandemic flus are rare and unusual strains that are far harder to spread than popular discourse might make it seem," Bogost says in a post about the game on Gamasutra. So hard, in fact, that we lost repeatedly in our attempts to infect a decent chunk of the virtual population. Do yourself a favor: check out Killer Flu and assuage your worries about the upcoming apocalypse. Besides, we all know it's going to be zombies that do us in. Come on now![Via GamePolitics]
