If you remember the 1950s you probably remember the terror of polio. Polio, short for poliomyelitis, is a disease caused by a virus which can cause severe inflammation of the spinal cord. Though most infected people have no symptoms, a small fraction of patients are left with permanent paralysis and deformities. The disease is sometimes fatal. In the US, the 1952 polio epidemic killed over 3,000 people and left over 20,000 with some paralysis. The isolation of the polio virus and the deve...