Swine flu: pandemic pre-history:
[Via Effect Measure]
However this pandemic evolves, we are going to learn a lot about how pandemics evolve — or maybe even start. A paper just published online in Nature sets out a bit more of what we know about this pandemic strain (yes, we can officially refer to it that way now) and makes some observations about its prehistory (its history before it became known and documented by we mortals). Maryn McKenna has an excellent run-down over at CIDRAP News, which you should read. Here’s our take on it.
[More]
Rapid dissemination of data is one of the hallmarks of the current age. Not only are the papers being published faster but the author are hosting their own wikis to get the data into the hands of other researchers, and us.
The CIDRAP post not only provides an excellent synopsis of the current paper but also gives a link to a wiki run by the authors. And some of the figures are licensed under Creative Commons, allowing me to put up my own copy as long as I provide attribution. Carl Zimmer discusses some of the novel aspects of this publication process.
So take a look at this:
Figure from Smith et al. 2009 Nature. In press: doi:10.1038/nature08182.
Copyright S.J.Lycett and A.Rambaut.
Human sequences are gray, swine are red and avian are green. You can see that the current outbreak( the yellow and orange lines) are derived from all three species. BUt, two important parts entered the system 10 years ago.
Proper surveillance of animals, while expensive, might have identified this strain before it leapt into humans. We might even rethink some of our current agricultural and livestock practices that make it easier for these viruses to mix.
But, it is nice that we can read and hear from the actual scientists. I discuss the ability of researchers to influence people at my business blog. It is hard for scientists to influence the majority of people because the majority is mostly influenced by respected people from inside their community, something few scientists occupy.
Providing an Open Access wiki actually makes it easier to be seen as an unbiased member of a community. By providing information that can be examined and by also providing comments, so people can see the science in ‘action.’ People can even download the data.
The process is not so mysterious. This goes some way towards helping convince the community that the science is correct. And we need to convince them because this virus still remains a health problem.
Technorati Tags: Open Access, Science, Sustainability
