News Snapshot:
Colin Carlson, a biologist at Georgetown University, has started to worry about mousepox. The virus, discovered in 1930, spreads among mice, killing them with ruthless efficiency . But scientists have never considered it a potential threat to humans. Now Dr. Carlson, his colleagues and their computers aren’t so sure. Using a technique known as machine learning, the researchers have spent the past few years programming computers to teach themselves about viruses that can infect human cells. The computers have combed through vast amounts of information about the biology and ecology of the animal hosts of those viruses, as well as...
