What is *cough* the Flu Shot Anyway?

Last week my wife and I both got sick.  We both passed the opportunity to get flu shots.  Would it help?  What magic elixir can keep someone from being sick?  How does it all work?

The flu, or influenza, is a virus, which Matt described very well in his post Viruses - A Vector to Remember. This particular virus is one bad hombre.  What makes this virus so bad is that the DNA that it carries makes people sick, sometimes very sick.  In fact, during World War I a flu epidemic known as the Spanish Flu infected half a billion people and may have killed as much as 3% of the world's population.

The Spanish Flu was not the first virus to leave a big wake of destruction.  Toward the end of the 1700s, smallpox killed nearly half a billion people in Europe alone.  While you are likely to catch the flu in your life, you will not get smallpox, thanks to the smallpox vaccine.

PCR for the Masses

Admittedly, molecular biology and synthetic biology have historically been hobbies for the well-off and well-to-do. At least, that is, if a researcher wanted quality equipment. A recent Do It Yourself (DIY) revolution (a.k.a. the Maker revolution, which is closely allied with the Open Source revolution) is attempting to change all that. Here we present to you one example of how clever people are working to bring the tools of biotechnology to your garage or bedroom laboratory. Meet OpenPCR.