I sort of wish had the version with the update - this is the 1999 version so there have been further developments since it came out - but this is still interesting reading.

I can't find the reference (reread Time Enough for Love looking for it) but I'm almost positive I first heard about the 1918 flu pandemic in something by Heinlein - something about "sweeping genetic recombination" during a flu pandemic during that decade, although he may have placed it in 1912. Maybe it was in Methuselah's Children; I'll have to dig it up and see.

The author says she was a microbiology major and the 1918 flu was never mentioned. For what it's worth, I took a survey microbiology course at the community college years ago & kept my textbook because it had all sorts of interesting tidbits in it. It's a 1984 edition, and there's a full-page box about the 1918 flu.

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Hm. I'm still pretty sure that Heinlein mentions the flu epidemic in connection with Lazarus Long at some point, but I found the "sweeping genetic recombination" line I remembered in David Palmer's Emergence, an old favorite that I recently re-read.

This went home from our TOC lunch with someone else. Hope you find it interesting..

There are frequent mentions that the great flu epidemic of 1918 is relatively unknown, but I know I've read of it before and discussed it in classes many years ago. This is a well-done exploration of the historical impact of the epidemic and the ramifications that it carried on into our own era vis-a-vis research and preparation for future epidemics. A good read.

Returning to TOC so more of the gals can have a go at it.