Material World - 30/04/2009

Quentin Cooper looks at the science behind the potential flu epidemic emanating from the 'swine' flu outbreak in Mexico. Analysts at the World Influenza Centre in Mill Hill, Hertforshire, describe how the molecular details of flu samples from across the globe will help them pin down the origin of the outbreak, and foresee its progress. And from Toronto how the SARS outbreak of 2003 led to a complete rethink of how to handle flu pandemics. Climate scientists have published further evidence that maintaining current levels of CO2 emmissions will lead to serious global warming. Even the international target of a 2 degree celsius rise in temperature will be hopelessly exceeded if levels are not reduced quickly and drastically. Professor Nial Tanvir describes observations of the most distant object ever seen. Gamma rays from a star exploding very soon after the beginning of the universe completed their 13 billion year journey when they reached NASA's Swift telescope.