Bird Flu - Flu Season/2005 Nobel Prizes

The deadly Spanish flu tht killed tens of millions of people in 1918 turns out to have been a bird flu, that jumped form birds to humans.  That discovery was announced this week  by teams of scientists who reconstructed the 1918 flu from tissue samples of its victims.  Ira Flatow talks with flu experts about what those findings tell us about the current bird flu in Southeast Asia, and it's potential for becoming a pandemic. President Bush has said that he would ask the military to assist in quarantining any outbreak of bird flu among people.  

Also a look ahead to this years flu season: what should we expect.

Plus a roundup of this years Nobel Prizes in science..


Guests: Bird Flu-Flu Season

William Schaffner, M.D.
Professor and Chair, Department of Preventive Medicine
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Nashville, Tennessee

Jeffrey Taubenberger
Chair, Department of Molecular Pathology
Armed Forces Institute of Pathology
  Washington, D.C.

Christopher Basler, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Microbiology
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
New York, New York

2005 Nobel Prizes In Science Wrapup

Joe Palca, 
NPR Science Correspondent

Books/Articles Discussed
 

(find books discussed on previous broadcasts)

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This segment produced by Karin Vergoth