It is only recently that scientists have been able to observe tiny viruses and their behavior. Bacteria are a thousand times larger than viruses, and our human cells are a thousand times larger than bacteria. We still don’t know what viruses are and how they can have such a complex lifestyle while consisting of just a piece of RNA or DNA and a handful of proteins. With everyone focused on SARS-CoV-2 virus, it is important to realize that much is being learned about how viruse

Some think viruses are not alive. It is, therefore, very surprising that they can evade elaborate cellular mechanisms used to find and destroy them. Search and destroy mechanisms of the cell and counter attacks from viruses are very complex. Cells use many sensors to find DNA and RNA that is not where it is supposed to be. When found, other mechanisms are triggered to get rid of it. Major cellular tools are pattern recognition receptors with enormous numbers of variations all

Only a very small percentage of the world’s microbes have been discovered, and even less of the much more plentiful and diverse viruses. So, it is not surprising that many dramatic new viruses have recently been found that alter our understanding of evolution. The giant Pandora viruses and many new unique ocean phages have brought forth questions about the validity of the current three-limbed diagram of the tree of life (archaea, bacteria, eukarya). With viruses and virus lik

One of the first discoveries about the unusual behavior and cognitive abilities of bacteria was a signal put out by many of the members of a community to make a group decision. This "quorum sensing" signal stimulates collaborative attacks and migration by sensing if there are enough providing signals to carry out the activity. Later, it was learned that each bacterium has many remarkable communication skills that allow them to manipulate the much larger and more complex human

It was once thought that to prove the cause of an infection, a microbe is found. The microbe is isolated from the unhealthy person. Later, this infection is reproduced in an otherwise healthy animal by injecting that particular microbe. This approach is described in Koch’s Postulates and was the dogma of microbiology for over a hundred years. However, current research about back and forth elaborate intelligent communication between cells, including microbes, has shown that de

Several intelligent viruses have been featured in previous posts. Herpes has a very complex life style with more than 70 genes—traveling up and down the neuron and in and out of the skin cell. HIV has an extraordinary set of complex behaviors with only 9 genes—travelling with critical proteins in its capsid, evading immune cells with multiple techniques and manipulating the cell’s complex nuclear machinery. How all of this can be accomplished with only 9 genes is not clear. N

Several posts have documented the unusual complex behavior of viruses. In particular, a recent post, The Remarkable Intelligent Varicella Virus, described a wide range of different complex behaviors for this small herpes virus. Somehow, it is able to enter and exit skin and nerve cells; travel up and down along the microtubules of the axons by commandeering the motors; move in and out of the cell’s nucleus; and alter its own behavior in different circumstances. The varicella

Varicella zoster virus is an alpha herpes virus that has been described in a previous post as having remarkable capabilities and a very complex lifestyle—the ability to travel up and down axons in a neuron, to move in and out of several different types of cells, to travel and multiply in T cells, to fool several different nuclear pore complexes, to commandeer microtubule motors, and to alter its own behavior pattern in different settings. How can the remarkable intelligent va

Evidence of intelligent behavior in subcellular structures.