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At BBC: In case you wondered, what if all viruses disappeared?

Denyse O'Leary
June 20, 2020
Biology
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Would they be missed?:

For a start, researchers do not know how many viruses even exist. Thousands have been formally classified, but millions may be out there. “We’ve discovered only a small fraction because people haven’t looked much,” says Marilyn Roossinck, a virus ecologist at Penn State University. “It’s just bias – the science has always been about the pathogens.”

Rachel Nuwer, “What if all viruses disappeared?” at BBC

We really do not know anything like what we should know about viruses before we just shut down our economies in a panic and so forth.

Comments
Viruses called phages do a lot to keep bacteria in check. Not all virus are bad for humans, just as not all bacteria are bad.Fasteddious
June 22, 2020
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Martin_r, You asked if they’re joking, but unfortunately they aren’t. They’re as serious as one can be. Really sad.jawa
June 21, 2020
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"For a start, researchers do not know how many viruses even exist. " what is worse, you Darwinians have no scientific theory, where the most abundant organism on Earth (viruses) come from. IS IT NOT ABSURD ??? YOU DEVELOPED A THEORY (allegedly scientific) but this theory can't explain the existence of the MOST ABUNDANT biological entity on Earth ??? ARE YOU JOKING ??? Darwin's common descent idea does not work with viruses, because viruses are unlike any other organism on Earth and can't be included to Darwin's tree of life. I will repeat myself, but no Darwinist EVER comments on this FACT: here are few quotes from a mainstream website (Virology.ws) "In a phylogenetic tree, the characteristics of members of taxa are inherited from previous ancestors. Viruses cannot be included in the tree of life because they do not share characteristics with cells, and no single gene is shared by all viruses or viral lineages. While cellular life has a single, common origin, viruses are polyphyletic – they have many evolutionary origins." "No single gene has been identified that is shared by all viruses. There are common protein motifs in viral capsids, but these have likely come about through convergent evolution or horizontal gene transfer." "It cannot be proven that early viruses appeared along with the first cells. The problem is that viruses move readily between diverse hosts. Consequently the ability of a virus to infect a particular species could lead to false conclusions about the ancient origin of viruses." "Cells obtain membranes from other cells during cell division. According to this concept of ‘membrane heredity’, today’s cells have inherited membranes from the first cells that evolved, and provides evidence that cells are derived from a common ancestor. Viruses have no such inherited structure." "https://www.virology.ws/2009/03/19/viruses-and-the-tree-of-life/"martin_r
June 21, 2020
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