This Week in Virology #78: Darwin gets weird

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, Dickson Despommier, and Rich Condit

Vincent, Alan, Dickson, and Rich talk about treating arthritis with a tanapox virus protein, Darwinian evolution of prions in cell culture, and the connection between cold weather fronts and outbreaks of avian H5N1 influenza in Europe.

Download TWiV #78 (53 MB .mp3, 73 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

• Treating arthritis with a tanapox virus protein that antagonizes TNF (press release and research article)


• Darwinian evolution of prions in cell culture (abstract)


• Simple diagram of prion propagation (Wikipedia)


• Thoughts on the pursuit of success in science by Charles Weissmann


• Cold fronts linked to European H5N1 outbreaks (PLoS Pathogens)


• Simon Singh's website and letter of support (thanks, Mary!)


• The importance of stupidity in scientific research (thanks, Mary!)


• Sustainable energy - without the hot air (thanks, Bernhard!)


• World Community Grid (thanks Dave!)


• Pre-order The Vertical Farm by Dickson Despommier


• Letters read on TWiV 78

Weekly Science Picks

Dickson Medical News Today: Infectious Diseases and Eaarth by Bill McKibben
Rich U can with Beakman and Jax by Jok Church
Alan UnderwaterTimes
Vincent The Reef Tank

Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twiv@twiv.tv or leave voicemail at Skype: twivpodcast. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twiv.