DOOMSDAY FLU UPDATE: Reader Donald Burden writes with this cheerful information: “I’m currently teaching a Topics in Biochemistry course and we’re discussing this right now. The Dutch group has pointed out that their survey of the literature indicates there are labs out there unwittingly working with strains of H5N1 that are anywhere from 1(!) to 3 mutations away from becoming transmissible from human to human. They’re unwittingly doing so, because of course they don’t know what mutations are necessary to make H5N1 transmissible (since the results are currently under wraps).”