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Viruses Infected By Viruses

Posted by samzenpus on from the hoist-with-its-own-petard dept.

SpaceAdmiral writes "Scientists have discovered a virus that can infect another virus. The fact that viruses can essentially get sick may change the debate over whether they are alive or not. Check out Nature for a slightly more technical article about the 'virophage.'"

5 of 341 comments (clear)

  1. Re:reproduction by ShadowRangerRIT · · Score: 5, Informative

    The reason your school taught you that is because the definition of living usually taught in schools includes such characteristics as:

    1. Metabolic function
    2. Physical Growth
    3. Independent reproduction

    just to name a few. Viruses don't possess any metabolic function (they use the host cells hijacked machinery), they don't grow (once created, they are essentially static objects until they bump into a cell), and they have no means of independent reproduction (again, the hijacked cells reproduce the virus).

    On the other hand, many people simplify the definition of life to solely the ability to reproduce (independently or not), which makes viruses alive, but also makes prions alive, and makes it fairly easy for humans to "create life" in the form of self-reproducing machines.

    --
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  2. Re:Software Viri too? by SpottedKuh · · Score: 5, Informative

    So are software viruses alive too?

    Obligatory link to an old paper: Eugene H. Spafford. Computer viruses as artificial life. Artificial Life, 1(3):249-265, 1994.

    The short answer is "no," but it makes for an interesting read if you have some whiskey to drink while you're reading it.

  3. Re:cancer by Mal-2 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Human Pamplona Virus (HPV) is thought to be solely responsible for cases of cervical cancer.

    I believe you meant papilloma (a virus that induces warts and similar growths), not Pamplona (a town where you can be an idiot and get yourself gored by a bull).

    Mal-2

    --
    How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
  4. summary = wrong by fatduck · · Score: 5, Informative

    Summary is totally misleading. The story isn't about viruses "getting sick" - it's about a certain type of satellite virus (not new) that can only infect a host that is already infected by another virus. Essentially the satellite virus is competing with the original virus for metabolites. The discovery here is that for the first time a satellite virus is competing for these resources to such an extent that it is actually destroying the original virus.

    --
    Making you think you're crazy is a billion dollar industry.
  5. Re:reproduction by PresidentEnder · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yes. Mules cannot reproduce. The distinctions between species are based on the production of offspring which can reproduce to the nth generation.

    --
    I used to carry a bottle of whiskey for snake bite. And two snakes. -Nefarious Wheel