Like CW, I have a fascination with viruses* and pathogens in general. I studied a bit of pathology at Uni. When I lived in Calcutta, I became painfully aware that we not only live in ecologies but that our bodies themselves are ecologies (bacterial dysentery will do that to you). The human body contains 10 times as many bacterial prokaryotic cells as human eukaryotic cells.
Viruses are reproductive machines that don't have the full equipment to reproduce without hijacking other organisms. They swarm through the environment. They mutate, recreate themselves in a constant state of becoming. The AIDS virus has killed (and changed the lives of) people close to me. But on one level it is beautiful. Don't you think? A little strand of nucleic acid surrounded by proteins. Not that dissimilar to us.
*I think the term "viral" is hideously misused but that's a rant for another time.
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1 comment:
Viruses are indeed spectacular and the HIV virus particularly so, like you I have lost friend to AIDS, it is this loss that brought me to the study of viruses in the first instance.
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