Smallpox survives

The World Health Organization (WHO) has made a controversial decision to retain its smallpox virus stocks to better combat bioterrorism.

The remaining known samples of the deadly virus are kept frozen at two high-security installations in the U.S. and Russia. The disease was officially eradicated in human populations in 1980 and the stocks were originally slated for destruction in 1993. But when evidence surfaced that the former Soviet Union and Iraq were amassing the virus, the deadline was postponed.

The WHO decided to maintain the stocks, hoping that researchers can design better vaccines against the virus, in case it is disbursed in a terrorist attack. Destruction of the stocks has been tentatively re-scheduled for 2005 or 2006.

Oh, God… that’s kind of gross

Researchers at the University of Utah have found that a woman looking for a mate is more likely to choose a man who smells like her dad.

Women in the study were asked to sniff two-day-old T-shirts worn by several men whose identities were kept secret. After carefully evaluating each volatile vestment, the women were asked which smell they would most prefer to wake up next to each morning. After the data was crunched, it was found that most women favoured the smell of men who possessed key immune system genes that closely matched their own—and these genes are inherited from a woman’s father. Scientists believe women might like to have husbands with similar immune system genes because there is a good chance their children will be healthy.

SUPER SCIENCE FACT!

I got this from VICE magazine, so I don’t know if it’s true, but rennet—an animal byproduct used to harden milk into cheese—is made from cow rectal tissue. Some guy apparently robbed a cheese factory and accidentally ended up with pounds of the stuff. After the cops picked him up, he confessed, embarrased that he was on his way to jail for stealing chunks of bovine ass.