This episode is presented by eBay.

Rob, everyone loves a deal and a bargain from time to time, don't they? Absolutely, mate. And you know where you can grab a great deal? Talk to me. Where? The eBay app. Yes, you are correct. You didn't need to talk to me. I already knew it. I love eBay. When you're buying, you can discover loads of hidden gems. there's so many items where you think I would have never found that anywhere else.

Then when you're buying, you can discover loads of hidden gems. There's so many items where you think I would have never found that anywhere else. Then when you're selling, it's so simple and most

importantly, free. It's free, Rob. When it's this easy to sell for free and there's great deals

on things you love. You can't help but say when it's eBay. It excludes vehicles and business

sellers.

Welcome to Science Talk, the weekly podcast of Scientific American, posted on May 1st, 2009.

I'm Steve Mursky. This week on the podcast, a look at the new May issue of Scientific American with editor-in-chief John Rennie,

and we'll test your knowledge about some recent science in the news. But first, the big story this week, of course, Swine Flu, Scientific American editor, Christine Suarez is our staff flu expert. We spoke in the magazine's library.

Christine, this swine flu story is moving fast. We're talking on Tuesday afternoon.

By the time people listen to this, things may have fundamentally changed.

So I'm going to assume that people will follow it with all the technology available, radio TV,

and especially on their computers, just seeing developments practically in real time.

So let's talk about what you might not get in that real-time self-immersion that people might do.

So, for example, we're hearing death toll numbers, but the death toll numbers usually don't come in any kind of a context,

like what's the total number of infections. Well, exactly.

I mean, that is the key bit of information.

As a matter of fact, some of the deaths have not been confirmed as swine flu cases.

So it's impossible to draw any conclusion about how lethal this flu is from the numbers we have now. But that is exactly

what the WHO and others are investigating, the extent of infections, who actually had swine flu,

who had regular flu, other respiratory infections, other causes of death. So that's a big

question mark right now. So when you hear a number,

...