It is the quick-change artist of the microbe world, a virus that minutely alters its external make-up, dozens of times as fast as the influenza bug. The rapid evolution of the deadly AIDS virus is a source of wonder to scientists. "We have not yet seen two viruses that are identical from two patients," says Dr. William Haseltine, a leading AIDS researcher at Harvard. Where did the deadly germ come from? Did it evolve from a less harmful variety? Last week reports from both sides of the Atlantic offered clues to the origins of the virus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome....
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