Week 9 — Locking In
Amelia S -
Hi guys, welcome to yet another week of my blog!
Things are moving along in my project and I’m making great progress on my final product! My poster is going to have 9 sections, and I already have 4 of those done! I finished both of the microbiology sections, which you might remember from last week, Spanish Flu, and the vaccine fiasco of ’76. Next up I want to wrap up the sections on SARS and H1N1. I am doing my bet to make the poster look nice, though I will be the first to admit that graphic design is not my calling. But we soldier on!
Meanwhile, I have been finishing FLU by Gina Kolata, and it is so interesting how scientists were trying to figure out just what made the 1918 pandemic so deadly. Most of the research covered in the book takes place in the ’90s, so they had to be creative to find samples of tissue that would still contain the preserved virus. In the end, they got some samples of preserved tissue from the US Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (which no longer exists, but from 1862-2011 was an archive of tissue samples from members of the US Military) and found more in bodies of people preserved beneath the permafrost in Alaska. Using PCR (polymerase chain reaction) the researchers were able to reconstruct the genetic sequence of the flu strain from 1918, even 80 years later. I haven’t got to the part where I learn what they discovered, but I can’t wait to find out, especially with the microbiology I researched last week giving me context.
Thanks for reading, I’ll let you know what I found out next week, and I can’t wait to see you all at my presentation June 3rd!
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