"After about 10 passages, we found the virus had acquired the ability to transmit" from animal to animal, said Ron Fouchier of the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and study co-author.

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As one of the fathers of European humanism, he gave his name to a university in his native Rotterdam, to a programme that helps young Europeans study abroad and to a controversial way of pronouncing Greek.

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The Science study, which came out in June, was led by Ron Fouchier at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

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