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AIDS-Like Virus New Threat To Koala
An anonymous reader writes "A virus that may weaken the immune system of koalas, similar to HIV in humans, is a new 'wild card' among threats facing the species and nearly all koalas in the Australian state of Queensland could already be infected."
I'm pretty sure I know how this all started..
Sleep 18 hours a day and eat the rest of the time. If they gambled too they could be my ex!
I agree. It should be a giant knife. And the mouseover should say "That's not a knife. This is a knife."
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
GOD HATES KOALAS!!1!!
Yeah, riiight. That’s the excuse I’d have given. ... How else could I have gotten it? :)
Doctor: Terrible news. You’re the first human to contract AIDS.
Patient: How would I have gotten that?
Doctor: Two ways: One: You were fucking a chimp up the ass.
Patient: LOL. Pff. Fucking a chimp up the ass... Me? No way.
Doctor: Oh, you could have carried bloody prey on your back, while your back had abrasio...
Patient: That one!
(Credit goes to Ricky Gervais.
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
I agree, they're actually closer to ewoks. Not nearly as good at mounting rebel attacks, though.
The only HIV-like aspect of the virus is that it is a retrovirus. It may even be harmless. BTW, does anyone have data on the prevalence of non-HIV retroviruses in humans?
Set your phasers on "funky"!
The nature article to the news story seems very interesting. As retroviruses have to integrate themselves into the cells genome to replicate, if the retrovirus infects a germline cell the virus can become incorporated into the animals genome and passed to their offspring. This seems to be already happening with this virus and it gives a chance to study the process in action.
About 8% of our genome is probably from ancient viruses which "invaded" our genome millions of years ago. Generally they become deactivated by mutation but they have been implicated in the growth of mammal embryos and the placenta. It would be pretty cool if the placenta, a defining feature of most of the mammals is due to a virus!
The most dangerous drug
It just irritates me Americans just seem to instantly think of a 30 year old movie as the first thing that comes to mind when they think of Australia ... It's like they know nothing else about the place, except that.
Speaking as an American, I think you may be underestimating us. We also know about Outback Steakhouse.