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They were dropping like flies.

One by one, the blackbirds started dying, with no obvious cause. That year, 2001, the birds completely disappeared from the city of Vienna.

The bird population rebounded a few years later, but meanwhile, researchers at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, started doing some detective work. The team initially suspected West Nile virus might have caused the blackbird die-off, but the tests weren't conclusive.

A closer look revealed the killer was a related pathogen called Usutu virus, but how it arrived in Vienna was a mystery. Now, the scientists have identified that the virus first appeared in Italy in 1996.

"This virus was not very well-known, because it had never been related to any disease," study leaderand pathologist Herbert Weissenbck told LiveScience. When it cropped up in 2001 in Vienna and other parts of Europe, "it was the causative agent of huge avian mortality," he said. [10 Deadly Diseases That Hopped Across Species]

Feathery surprise

Recently, Weissenbck and his colleagues at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, learned of a similar mass dying of blackbirds that took place in Tuscany, Italy, five years earlier, in 1996. At the time, the cause was unknown, but scientists at the University of Camerino saved tissue samples from the dead birds in paraffin wax.

Weissenbck's team analyzed the samples and found the same strain of Usutu virus that had hit Vienna. "It was just a guess, because the major species in Italy had been blackbirds as well,"Weissenbck said.

The Vienna scientists sequenced the genetic material from the Tuscany samples and samples from infected Vienna birds, finding a match between the two viruses. A second test, using antibodies for the virus, confirmed the match.

Chasing a virus

Continued here:
Mysterious Virus IDed in Bizarre Bird Deaths

Herbert Weissenbck

In 2001, blackbirds in Vienna started dying of a mysterious African virus.

By Tanya LewisLiveScience

They were dropping like flies.

One by one, the blackbirds started dying, with no obvious cause. That year, 2001, the birds completely disappeared from the city of Vienna.

The bird population rebounded a few years later, but meanwhile, researchers at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, started doing some detective work. The team initially suspected West Nile virus might have caused the blackbird die-off, but the tests weren't conclusive.

A closer look revealed the killer was a related pathogen called Usutu virus, but how it arrived in Vienna was a mystery. Now, the scientists have identified that the virus first appeared in Italy in 1996.

"This virus was not very well-known, because it had never been related to any disease," study leader and pathologist Herbert Weissenbck told LiveScience. When it cropped up in 2001 in Vienna and other parts of Europe, "it was the causative agent of huge avian mortality," he said. [10 Deadly Diseases That Hopped Across Species]

Feathery surpriseRecently, Weissenbck and his colleagues at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, learned of a similar mass dying of blackbirds that took place in Tuscany, Italy, five years earlier, in 1996. At the time, the cause was unknown, but scientists at the University of Camerino saved tissue samples from the dead birds in paraffin wax.

Weissenbck's team analyzed the samples and found the same strain of Usutu virus that had hit Vienna. "It was just a guess, because the major species in Italy had been blackbirds as well,"Weissenbck said.

Read more:
Mysterious virus in bizarre bird deaths IDed

In the real world, cleaning out the digital crud and viruses mucking up your ailing computer is rarely a fun ordeal, but Retrovirus' sci-fi-heavy approach to tech support is far more satisfying. This "six degrees of freedom" first-person shooter sends you hovering, scanning, and blasting through a vast microscopic computer realm to purge a rampant virus from the system through brute force. Though a thick, meandering plot and massive difficulty spikes make for an uneven experience, Retrovirus marks a mostly welcome return to the twitchy, sometimes disorienting style of subterranean combat and exploration made popular by Descent in the mid-'90s.

Storytelling isn't Retrovirus' strong suit. Played solo or cooperatively, the campaign throws you right into the action amid a deluge of tech-speak, offering a confusing introduction to the world and its metal inhabitants. Taking place within the confines of a desktop computer, the game opens with a boot sequence that reveals a bustling society of microscopic robots going about their routines. That is, until a nasty wormlike virus infiltrates the system and unleashes hell. You play as a heavily armed antivirus bot dispatched on a seek-and-destroy mission--one that leads you down a winding path through the system's inner workings and requires you to annihilate tons of volatile purple gunk.

You sporadically uncover emails throughout your trek that fill in a few blanks on the bigger conspiracy that's afoot, but the dry dialogue and hollow exchanges between the game's disembodied cast of robotic characters don't bring much personality to this harsh electronic landscape. Simply put, the narrative hook is lacking. Even by the end, it's hard to feel any lasting connection to the shaky plot or its characters, but the journey itself is a wild ride nonetheless.

As you move from one area of the computer's system to the next, exploration and combat are inextricably linked by the need to clear away the nasty trails of purple corruption left behind by the virus. Playing clean-up duty is both challenging and fulfilling, since the large pustules join with snaking tendrils to form a foul network that houses spawn pits for a bevy of alienlike foes. From bulbous beasts that spew heat-seeking charges to flitting critters that multiply when killed, the vile menagerie is formidable in large numbers. Taking down their infrastructure quickly is crucial, and the attacking creatures aren't pushovers. Among their many traits, they can all infest and re-infest friendly droids to turn them against you. Their tenacity proves equally thrilling and harrowing at times, so emerging victorious to purge each area of its pestilence delivers a level of satisfaction that's on par with scratching a stubborn itch--over and over again.

Thankfully, your antivirus drone is largely up to the hefty task. It's extremely maneuverable, letting you move in six directions and rotate your angle a full 360 degrees. While this "six degrees of freedom" makes moving and fighting through twisty corridors and larger obstacle-filled rooms disorienting at first when enemies are coming at you from all directions, it's an exciting way to play that hasn't been done this well in a while. Along with the ability to cloak for a short time, boost to escape danger, and send out a scan ray to detect nearby foes, your scrappy little bot has a versatile assortment of perks to draw from. As you level up, you can cherry-pick helpful plug-ins from three loadout categories that boost your abilities, enhance your arsenal, and assist in other ways. What's great is that you're never locked into your decisions either. You can reshuffle your plug-in points to adapt to different combat situations, which is necessary for surviving everything Retrovirus throws at you.

A limited-yet-rechargeable power supply that ties in to your weapons and abilities keeps the balance of power in check. If you fire too frequently or use other abilities in tandem with your guns haphazardly, you rapidly deplete your reserves and have to wait until they recharge. This adds tension to most combat situations, since you often run out of juice while battling in close quarters. This balance is necessary early on; however, it works against you in the game's larger, tougher confrontations that throw massive swarms of foes at you. Frequent checkpoints and quick saves help counter most of this frustration, though some stretches are particularly brutal. The fact that these killer areas are sometimes sandwiched between quieter zones offers some relief, but they tend to blindside you as a result.

The organic nature of your foes provides great visual contrast to the tech-heavy environments you explore and battle through. Retrovirus' impressive visual design and frequently changing environments help carry some of the more repetitious combat sequences that pop up. Sporadic boss battles, light puzzle sections, and some optional objectives to boost your experience further flesh things out too. Beyond the main campaign, several multiplayer options are worth exploring despite an anemic online player base. Group co-op is functional but hampered by various glitches, such as doors not opening for all players. Deathmatches against bots or other players are fast-paced and use a cool weapon upgrade system that triggers new perks as you amass kills.

The MOBA mode is by far the most interesting option, however. It pits opposing teams against one another to push through their opponents' base defenses and destroy their nexus. Mobs, turrets, and other players add to the chaos, as you battle alongside human comrades and drones alike. The push-pull flow of these battles makes for some hotly contested matches. They're a lot of fun when you have enough human players to fight against and alongside. It's just a shame there aren't many players online with whom to take advantage of these multiplayer features.

As a revival of classic Descent-style exploration and combat, Retrovirus masterfully revamps and improves on the winning formula that hooked players almost two decades ago. A weak story and other fumbles make it hard to fully embrace the experience, but this unique, fast-paced shooter is still worth digging into for its distinct setting and intense virus slaying. Overlook a few foibles, and you'll find blasting bugs a sporadically blissful time.

See more here:
Retrovirus Review [PC]

Cancer isn't really an equal opportunity disease. It is the second-biggest killer of Americans (after heart disease), but your gender, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic level, and more have a big impact on whether you get cancer, when you develop it, and what your chance of survival is.

In this, the first in a series, TakePart takes a look at specific groups of people who bear an extraordinary burden when it comes to cancer: These are the Americans who are paying a very high price and who live with the real "costs" (financial, physical, mental and emotional) of the disease.

The Obesity Epidemic Spawns Another Health Risk: Cancer

STATISTIC: African-American men are more likely to have cancer, and they are about 20 percent more likely to die of it.

Everyone fears cancer, but perhaps no group should fear it more than African-American men. As a group, black men have higher rates of several common types of cancers and are also more likely to die from the disease compared to other racial and ethnic groups. The death rate for cancer in black men is 288.3 per 100,000 people compared to 221.9 for non-Hispanic white men.

Consider these facts:

The death rate for prostate cancer inmen is about 2.4 times higher than in white men. For reasons that are unclear, prostate cancer in black men is often a more aggressive disease, which leads to higher death rates.

African-American men are 1.4 times more likely to have lung cancer (the leading cause of cancer deaths in men) and 1.5 times more likely to have prostate cancer compared to white men.

African-American men are twice as likely to have stomach cancer as white men.

African-American men had lower five-year cancer survival rates for lung, colon, and pancreatic cancer compared to white men.

See the article here:
One Group Dies From Cancer More Often Than Any Other. Do You Know Who It Is?

Purdue University virologist Suresh Mittal looks at petri dishes in his lab.

Associated Press

Enlarge photo

The following editorial appeared recently in the Chicago Tribune:

Americans are still in the grip of a scary flu season. Who can forget the alarming headlines about the swift spread and virulence of this year's bug? Everyone's still on high alert should someone sneeze or cough on the bus, train, restaurant or office. Violators are dealt with harshly.

Now imagine a flu strain exponentially more contagious and more deadly. Fiction? Hardly. In late 2011, a Dutch scientist announced that he had genetically tweaked one of the world's most deadly bird flu viruses to make it more contagious to humans. In other words, a doomsday virus spread by a sneeze.

An international furor forced scientists conducting the experiments to back off. They declared a voluntary moratorium while government and research officials debated safety rules. Now, a year later, that moratorium is about to be lifted in many labs around the world. The U.S. is expected to release new guidelines for researchers within weeks.

The nagging question, however, remains: is this research safe? Many scientists say it is. The research can be safely done on the virus, known as H5N1, with strict security. Labs, for instance, need layers of security to make sure mutated viruses don't infect researchers or otherwise escape.

Maybe we've seen too many science fiction movies in which killer bugs escape, but we're skeptical. We'll take our cue from Dr. Michael Osterholm, a University of Minnesota influenza expert, who argues for strict limits on publishing details about the mutated H5N1 virus.

"The problem is once the work is done and the decision made to publish it, anyone in the world can (create a mutated virus)," Osterholm told us. "That is the part that hasn't been addressed. I don't worry about a U.S.-government supported lab that is under tight review and scrutiny. I worry about this work being done in the University of Podunk."

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What others say: Guard flu secrets