A planet of viruses
by Carl Zimmer · first published 2011
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Viruses are the smallest living things known to science, and yet they hold the entire planet in their sway. We are most familiar with the viruses that give us colds or the flu, but viruses also cause a vast range of other diseases. Viruses have been a part of our lives for so long, in fact, that we are actually part virus: the human genome contains more DNA from viruses than our own genes. Meanwhile, scientists are discovering viruses everywhere they look: in the soil, in the ocean, even in deep caves miles underground. Here, science writer Carl Zimmer presents the latest research on how virus
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I recommend "A Planet of Viruses" by Carl Zimmer. It's really short but almost every page is a mind-blower. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10840041-a-planet-of-vir... There are viruses that go into the hosts DNA, replicate along…
on “Scientists discover virus with no recognizable genes” ↗I strongly recommend "A Planet of Viruses" by Carl Zimmer http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo222... There are viruses that enter a host, merge with its DNA, replicate along with it for generations just like "normal" DNA.…
on “Cells Talk in a Language That Looks Like Viruses” ↗…http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2012/02/14/mammals-ma... http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/12/science/12paleo.html For those interested in evolution of sexual reproduction and "viro-biome", I recommend Carl Zimmer's Planet of Viruses and Matt Ridley's Red Queen. I agree the article is a bit sensationalist. Look at it in this way: had it been a boring, academic, science-journaly piece, many of us wouldn't have waded through the article…
on “War in the womb” ↗I would add Carl Zimmer’s “A Planet of Viruses” as well.
on “Over 140k virus species in the human gut, half of which are new to science” ↗…interesting! Do you know some (pop)science books that could help learn more about viruses? I found two that sound good from description: "Viruses: A Very Short Introduction" by Dorothy H. Crawford and "A Planet of Viruses" by Carl Zimmer. Would you recommend any of these or something else?
on “How the placenta evolved from an ancient virus” ↗…don't publish. Attaining the "ML" would be akin to becoming a local god, but how would you have to transform yourself to manage it? I believe that is the barrier, if any. In any event, after reading "A Planet of Viruses" by Carl Zimmer [1] I'm pretty sure that they already have things locked down. It's a non-fiction pop-sci covering recent discoveries in biology of viruses, only 109 pages and nearly every one mind-blowing.…
on “'Demonically Clever' Backdoor Hides Inside Computer Chip” ↗