Remember all those wonderful times when you went to check your email only to discover that half of it was spam. Well curse those spammers no more, because the folks at Microsoft have figured out that they can put thier resources that they have previously been using to filter out junk mail from your inbox to great medical use. The people at Microsoft actually think they may be able to help doctors fight HIV with the algorithm (formula) that they devoloped to combat spammers. From what we do know about HIV, it attacks a person's immune system cells and then proceeds to create many copies of itself with slight variations. That is why doctors attempts to make a cure or vaccine for HIV have been stifled for so long. However, if Microsoft's plan works, thier algorithm would be able to predict all the possible combinations of mutated variations of the HIV virus in a patient. This would allow medical researchers to finally be able to develop a viable vaccine that is effective against all strains of the virus...incredible!Credits:
Clark, Josh. "How can spam e-mail help fight HIV?." 26 October 2007. HowStuffWorks.com. http://health.howstuffworks.com/spam-hiv.htm 09 July 2009.
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