Bringing Good Things To Life (Science)?
Slideshow: GE lights up life science
Each year, a new strain of seasonal influenza is born in Southeast Asia and sweeps across the globe to North America and Europe, infecting between 3 million and 4 million people annually before burning out somewhere in South America. World Health Organization (WHO) workers collect samples from flu sufferers in more than 80 countries to monitor current strains and to predict the strain that will become the year's killer. They are often wrong, however, and vaccine manufacturers can't simply whip up a new batch.
The lag time between identifying the breakout strain, manufacturing the vaccine, and distributing it to where it's needed can take six to nine months. With seasonal flu, those who fall ill may lose a few days of work, but H5N1 avian flu is ...
