Serendipity, science, and a new hantavirus.

This essay follows a team of scientific investigators step by intriguing step as it pursues the cause of the mysterious 1993 deaths of healthy young adults in the southwestern United States. Using the science of the day, the team unravels the elusive origin of a potentially widespread killer--tracking a new hantavirus to its home, tracing its lineage, and differentiating its DNA from the large hantavirus family. This is the first in the "Breakthroughs" series.