Q&As

Rutgers University biophysicist explains how heading overseas has enriched his career.

How to thrive as a plant biologist in a biomedical research environment.

Palestinian researcher heads to Israel to foster scientific exchange.

Greg Graffin has found a way to pursue his dual passions for evolutionary biology and music.

Belgium offers numerous opportunities for foreign researchers.

How Paddy Patterson, one of the architects of the Encyclopedia of Life, hopes to present biodiversity to the world.

To the friends and relatives of the 800-plus people slain by severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), this might seem like a callous question. But SARS barely registers a blip in the annual body count caused by infectious disease. Influenza is likely to kill up to half-a-million people in 2003, whereas the death tolls from malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS will each run to seven figures. So, when the outbreak is put into perspective, was the panic over SARS really warranted?

Viruses such as HIV and those that cause influenza have often been described as 'wily' because they mutate rapidly, a trait that helps them to evade drugs or the human immune system. But so far, the SARS virus seems remarkably invariant: the genome sequences of 14 isolates from patients in Singapore, Toronto, China and Hong Kong have not revealed any changes of real consequence¹⁷.