New 'Seal Flu' Outbreak Could Pose Threat to Humans

Harbor Seals at Woods Hole Science Aquarium.

Over the past few years, bird flu and swine flu outbreaks have harmed wide swaths of global populations—now scientists are warning that a new flu that developed in seals off the New England coast could pose a human threat.

Last winter, officials found 162 dead harbor seals in what was then thought to be a pneumonia outbreak. But a new investigation by Columbia University researchers has found that the dead seals had a new mutation of the influenza A virus. The virus started as avian, or bird flu, but the mutations may have created something new altogether.

[Universal Flu Vaccine Could Be Available by 2013]

"Once it moves into seals, it becomes seal flu," says Ian Lipkin, director of the Center for Infection & Immunity at Columbia University.

The fact that the virus was transferred from a bird to a mammal and the apparently high mortality rate of the seals that were infected raises concerns for humans, Lipkin says. In the seals, the virus mutated to become more transmissible in mammals, a key component for any human outbreak.

"Whenever you have something like this that emerges in wildlife that's associated with high mortality, we have to consider the possibility it could extend to humans," he says. "70 percent of emerging diseases move from animals to people—there's a long list of those: Ebola, hepatitis C, other flus, HIV, etc."

[H1N1 Flu Killed Far More Than Reported]

According to the Centers for Disease Control, influenza A viruses have been known to infect seals, ducks, chickens, pigs, whales, and horses, but such a large outbreak is extremely rare, Lipkin says.

Last winter, at least 12 Americans were infected with a new swine flu strain called H3N2v in five states, and humans are obviously much more likely to come into contact with a domesticated pig than a wild seal. But it only takes a few humans to be infected with a particularly virulent flu strain to start spreading the virus, Lipkin says.

"This may in fact be a new route in [to human infection]," he says. "I can't tell you if it'll move into humans, but it has the potential to do so."

Jason Koebler is a science and technology reporter for U.S. News & World Report. You can follow him on Twitter or reach him at jkoebler@usnews.com.

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Curiosity Mars Rover: 'The Stakes Could Not Be Higher'

NASA has upped the ante with its Curiosity rover, which is much more expensive than the Spirit rover, pictured above.

After years of sending relatively inexpensive rovers and probes to Mars, NASA is taking a huge gamble with the $2 billion Curiosity rover, which is set to land early Monday morning, according to one prominent Mars scientist.

Robert Zubrin is president of the Mars Society, an organization dedicated to the human exploration of Mars, and author of The Case for Mars. A successful mission isn't guaranteed, given the fact that only a third of all missions to Mars have been successful.

[Learn More about the Curiosity Landing]

"NASA is really betting the house on this one," he says. "They have deviated from the previous wisdom of sending multitudes of relatively cheap missions to Mars for one expensive and incredibly powerful mission."

By all accounts, Curiosity is the most ambitious rover ever sent to the Red Planet. It's much heavier and more sophisticated than any previous rover or probe, and, if successful, is expected to determine if microbial life has ever lived on Mars.

With NASA already having axed its manned spaceflight missions and coming under recent scrutiny from those who'd like the government to slash its budget, this could be a make-or-break mission for the agency, he says.

And scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who designed and built the rover, are putting their chips on an all-new, and untested, landing system that ups the ante. If successful, the multi-part landing process, which will use a rocket-powered "sky crane" to lower the thousand pound rover onto the planet's surface, could be powerful enough for future "sample return" missions that could re-launch small Martian soil samples to earth.

[Spectacular Snapshots of Space]

"If it succeeds, it'll be a brilliant mission and could conceivably make discoveries that'll incite future human missions," Zubrin says. "If it fails, NASA will be discredited at exactly the wrong time."

Zubrin says he has a gut feeling that NASA has about a 70 percent chance of pulling it off.

"It's an important fact that NASA has been more successful than other agencies," he says. "I don't think it was prudent [to do such an expensive mission], but just because a gamble isn't prudent doesn't mean it can't win. Risky gambles have paid off."

Hindsight, he says, is 20/20, and NASA's harshest critics will come out of the woodwork if the rover crashes.

"If you look at the engineering and physics, the [landing procedure] is entirely defensible," he says. "But if it fails, the voices of criticism will be phenomenal."

The Obama administration has already tabled planned 2016 and 2018 missions to Mars. If Curiosity crashes, those missions are likely to be permanently scrapped. But a successful mission will make the thirst for a manned flight undeniable.

"If it finds [life], there's a very strong argument for humans to Mars," he says. "It'll be hard to hold the hounds back."

Jason Koebler is a science and technology reporter for U.S. News & World Report. You can follow him on Twitter or reach him at jkoebler@usnews.com

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Convention Could Prove To Be Headache For Romney

The Republican National Convention in Tampa won't be any picnic for presumptive presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

It's becoming increasingly clear that it will be difficult for Romney and leaders of the Republican party to orchestrate a smooth nomination process and insure unity at the convention, which starts in three weeks.

[Check out our gallery of political cartoons]

One problem will be the GOP's conservative wing, as represented by the Tea Party. The victory of Tea Party favorite Ted Cruz in the Texas Republican primary for the U.S. Senate this week has triggered declarations from Tea Party activists that they will hold Romney to account. 'These guys [Tea Party candidates] are going to force Romney to the right," Andrea Shell, a spokeswoman for the Tea Party-affiliated Freedom Works, told ABC News. "That is our entire mission."

It isn't known how many delegates to the GOP gathering will be Tea Party hard-liners. But a guide to the strength of the hard-line conservative movement could be the power and passion of delegates for Texas Congressman Ron Paul. Paul is a libertarian who remains a GOP presidential candidate even though Romney has locked up a majority of delegates. Paul's delegates, who number in the hundreds, share many of the same objectives as the Tea Party, notably a visceral opposition big government and soaring federal spending.

[See a collection of political cartoons on the Tea Party.]

Some Paul delegates want to force showdowns with Romney forces and establishment Republicans over the GOP platform and over seating pro-Paul delegations versus pro-Romney delegations in various states.

There are currently a number of challenges from both sides to delegations from Maine, Louisiana, and Massachusetts. And, beyond that, there could be fights over Romney's choice of his vice-presidential running mate if conservatives don't deem the selection as sufficiently conservative.

Romney's goal for the convention is simple and straightforward even though it may be difficult to achieve. He wants to use the gathering as a sort of advertisement for himself, to highlight his biography and underscore his criticism of President Obama for what Romney calls a failed presidency, especially when it comes to strengthening the economy and reducing unemployment.

Ken Walsh covers the White House and politics for U.S. News. He writes the daily blog, "Ken Walsh's Washington," and is the author of "The Presidency" column for the U.S. News Weekly. He can be reached at kwalsh@usnews.com and on Facebook and Twitter.

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