Vincent Racaniello of Columbia University did groundbreaking research on reconstructing the DNA of viruses (sort of like microbial Jurassic Park). The method was used to re-create the spectacularly lethal influenza behind the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic, which killed between 50 and 100 million people. Why re-create such a monster? "Influenza is a particularly thorny virus that comes back over and over again. There's always the possibility that a particular strain may come back," he tells Kurt Andersen. "The 1918 was so deadly, knowing about it prepares scientists if it should ever come back."
