News Scan Briefs; December 2005; Scientific American Magazine; by Christine Soares, Charles Q. Choi, Philip Yam; 2 Page(s)

The 1918 pandemic flu virus is back, at least in the lab. After fishing out the virus's genes from preserved tissue samples, Jeffery Taubenberger of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology and his colleagues report in the October 6 Nature that the virus was not a combination of human and avian flu strains, as was the case for other, milder pandemics. Rather the 1918 virus probably leaped whole into the human population from another host. That means the H5N1 avian flu now raging throughout Asia and spreading to Europe might be able to do the same. In fact, it may be deadlier. In the October 7 Science, Terrence Tumpey of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention described the recreation of the 1918 virus from the genome sequence. The revivified killer was lethal to mice initially infected with as few as 1,000 virus particles, whereas some H5N1 virus isolates have killed mice infected with just 10 or 15 particles.

Scientists have created the first molecule that can move in a straight line by itself on a flat surface by mimicking how a person walks. The molecule--9,10-dithioanthracene, or DTA--is made of a coal-tar derivative linked to a pair of sulfurous organic compounds. When heated, the linked compounds moved in alternation so only one was lifted from a copper surface at a time. The planted "foot" kept the molecule from stumbling or veering off course, even when pushed or pulled with a fine probe.