Evolving Viruses To Death

This fall, I gave a number of lectures about the evolution of swine flu. By the time I got to the end of the talk, I could tell that a lot of people in the audience were feeling a bit resigned, given the way evolution allows viruses like the flu to evade our best attacks. (Here's the full video of my lecture at the University of British Columbia.)

To try to cheer up the crowd, I'd offer a note of hope–the notion that we could turn the evolution of viruses against them, by pushing them into...