Re: Bird Flu Returns, and This Time It's Mutated (Time Magazine)

[Guest guest]

but flu always mutates.

So, did they mean: reassorted ?

> mutant strain now circulating among the birds in China and Vietnam

[Guest guest]

The article isn't clear on that point. The viral genes can reassort or they can actually change even in the smallest aspect. Viruses, while they generally are not recognized as life forms do seem to have some kind of "brains" in order to protect themselves and propogate in their insidious ways. We must be the change we wish to see in the world. Mohandas K. GandhiFrom: "sterten@..." <sterten@...>Flu Sent: Thursday, September 1, 2011 4:34 AMSubject: Re: [Flu] Bird Flu Returns, and This Time It's Mutated (Time Magazine)

but flu always mutates.

So, did they mean: reassorted ?

> mutant strain now circulating among the birds in China and Vietnam

[Guest guest]

Well, whether viruses are living things or not is really a semantic discussion.

Those who say they are not, say so only because they don't have cells of their

own. Instead, they use the cells of their hosts for replication purposes - kind

of like your no-good couch-surfing cousin who screws his date on your living

room sofa. And while at least retroviruses like influenza do not have DNA, they

do have RNA, which is a blueprint for making DNA - which they do in their hosts'

cells. And like all things whose structure and composition is determined by

DNA, their " brains " for survival as a species (if I can call it that) is the

mutation of their genetic code and the ultimate survival of the fittest mutant,

a process known as evolution, a process that truly distinguishes all living

things from non-living things.

>

> The article isn't clear on that point.  The viral genes can reassort or they

can actually change even in the smallest aspect.  Viruses, while they generally

are not recognized as life forms do seem to have some kind of " brains " in order

to protect themselves and propogate in their insidious ways.

>

>

> We must be the change we wish to see in the world.

> Mohandas K. Gandhi

>

> From: " sterten@... " <sterten@...>

> Flu

> Sent: Thursday, September 1, 2011 4:34 AM

> Subject: Re: [Flu] Bird Flu Returns, and This Time It's Mutated (Time

Magazine)

>

>

>  

>

>

> but flu always mutates.

> So, did they mean: reassorted ?

>

> > mutant strain now circulating among the birds in China and Vietnam

>