From 1918-1919 it was the cause of more deaths globally than the first world war. It's estimated that 50 million people died.

It struck again in 1957 taking over 60,000 more lives. And again in 1968 and again in 2009...and it's still out there, waiting, mutating, hunting for its next victim...that could be you. It's the flu.

In this episode of Brainwaves Pennie Latin looks down the microscope at the flu virus to discover why it is such a worldwide problem and seemingly so difficult to combat, never mind eradicate once and for all.

You can be involved in helping to combat flu because citizen science and social media are now being used to track the incidence of flu symptoms around the country, enabling scientists to discover more about the transmission of the virus.

And Pennie will seek to find the definitive answer to the highly controversial question; 'Does man flu actually exist?'.