甲型H1N1流感病毒可能是人为制造!!!

以下分享一则重要新闻，是关于最近沸沸扬扬的甲型H1N1流感病毒的：

国际在线专稿:据彭博社13日报道，澳大利亚一学者在一份即将公布的报告中声称，甲型H1N1流感病毒源自实验室，而非大自然，甚至很有可能是故意制造出来的。获知此事后，世界卫生组织已经展开调查。世卫组织表示，病毒的流传不排除是学者失误的可能性。

　　据悉，撰写该报告的作者是澳大利亚病毒专家吉布兹（Adrian Gibbs）。现已退休的吉布兹上周末将此事上报给位于日内瓦的世界卫生组织总部，称即将在网上公布此报告。

　　报告中，吉布兹指出甲型H1N1病毒可能源自实验室，有可能是制造流感疫苗时发生了意外，或许根本就是故意制造出来的。该消息一出，立刻引起了人们的广泛关注。世界卫生组织在得知此消息后，不敢怠慢，紧急召集了全球人类及动物流感研究专家共商此事，研究报告的真实性。

　　世卫组织高官、权威流感科学家、健康及环境安全代理秘书长福田敬二（Keiji Fukuda）博士在11日的采访中表示，目前大家还在对此进行商讨，并未达成一致。吉布兹对病菌的研究已达40余载，也是首位对甲型H1N1流感病毒的基因组成进行分析的科学家。

　　吉布兹及两名同事对流感病毒8个基因编码的数百个氨基酸（amino acids）序列都进行分析后发现，该病毒基因突变的频率比通常猪身上的病毒高出3倍，说明病毒不可能来自于猪。只可能是病毒在传染到人身上时，先接触到了猪而已。在接受媒体的电话采访中，他表示:“只要我们搞清楚病毒究竟是从何而来，我们才会更加安全。我的研究结果已经得到了包括孟菲斯圣·朱迪儿童研究医院的科研人员里查德·维比(Richard J.Webby)博士等科学家的支持。

　　但福田敬二表示，最初的H1N1新型流感病毒分析报告确实认为该病毒的产生有其他的解释，但吉布兹的论断并非最正确的解释。目前所有的证据，都不支持吉布兹的理论。美国疾病控制中心已对甲型H1N1病毒基因序列做过相当广泛的分析，中心流感部主管南希表示:“我们都对病毒的来源感到好奇，但分析结论并不支持吉布兹的观点。”英国剑桥大学流感病毒演化专家也不赞吉布兹的说法。

吉布兹在接受彭博社的电视采访中也承认，对于病毒的蔓延最简单的解释就是来自实验室的泄露，但也不排除有其他多种的可能性。

Reference：http://news.cctv.com/world/20090514/100644.shtml

本文编辑：白振良

Chicken droppings could help clear up oil spills

Chicken droppings may be one answer to cleaning up soil contaminated with crude oil, according to researchers in China.

Soil that has been ploughed with chicken manure breaks down 50 per cent more crude oil than soil lacking the manure, according to a team led by Huiwen Ma, a professor of biochemistry at China's Wuhan University.

The contamination of soil by crude oil is a growing problem as China accelerates its exploitation of oil reserves to meet rising energy demands. The fifth largest oil producer in the world, China produced 190 million tons of crude oil in 2008.

But the environment has paid a huge price. The Zhongyuan oilfield in Henan has polluted over 1,700 hectares of adjacent farmland, according to a preliminary calculation by Henan Agricultural University in 2002.

Previously, scientists have applied chemical fertilisers to the soil to encourage microbes to degrade the oil. But the fertilisers are expensive, can threaten the environment themselves and also cause the soil to harden and become less fertile.

In their laboratory experiment Ma's team found that a Bacillus species found in chicken manure is the most effective oil-removing microbe.

The manure decreases the acidity of soil, creating an environment ideal for the bacterial degradation.

The chicken farms that have sprung up over China in recent years have made accumulating chicken manure a more realistic prospect, said Zhang Zhongzhi, a professor of biochemical engineering from the China University of Petroleum. Ma's research offers a pragmatic approach to biodegradation, he told SciDev.Net.

But Ma said that, in the field, the manure will take longer to work because of differences in oxygen supply and fluctuating temperatures.

The study was published in the International Journal of Environment and Pollution in February.

Japanese Geneticists Revied Dead Rat

This year, Japanese Geneticists successfully cloned a rat that has been dead for 16 years. The dead rat was kept frozen. They cloned 13 living rats.

This means that reviving extincted species like mammoth may be become possible in the future. Before that, this is always regarded as impossible. We can only see that in movies like 'Jurassic Park'.

The procedures are, first of all, cell nuclei are taken out from the dead rat's brain and blood. Then they are injected into eggs to form embryos.

They scientists claimed that this technique is really hard to operate as the cells of a dead rat will rot soon after it died even the cells are kept frozen. So the scene in the movie is not gonna happen in few years. But we've already made a huge progress.