“Whether the genetic remnants of human endogenous retroviruses can cause disease in people is still under study.”
Viruses
Otangelo Grasso has a new book out — Origin of life and the virus world
Good thing someone is including the virus world in the discussion.
At Reasons.org: Benefits of Viruses
“Why would an all-powerful, all-loving God create a world with viruses?”
Virus manipulates caterpillars into killing themselves
The suggestion is that, as the caterpillars are dying from the virus, the virus manipulates them to die in a place more convenient for itself. Incidentally, “Neuroscientist: Even viruses are intelligent. Antonio Damasio says, in the excerpt from his new book, that — based on the evidence — we cannot deny viruses “some fraction” of intelligence. Researchers who study viruses, including the one that causes COVID, note similarities between viral strategies and those of insects and animals.”
Charming bacteria set off virus bombs in their neighbors
Researchers aren’t yet sure if it happens outside the lab. If it is the case, then it is another example of a life form having strategy that raises the question, “Could it really have randomly evolved with no underlying intelligence in nature?” Lot of those questions piling up.
CoVid Spike Protein and Myocarditis Study: The Covid “Vaccine” is a Spike Protein Initiator.
Today at Phys.Org, this press release and linked paper can be found. Now, listen to this: A research team led by Bristol’s Professor Paolo Madeddu exposed human heart pericytes, which are cells that wrap small blood vessels in the heart, to SARS-CoV-2 Alpha and Delta variants, along with the original Wuhan virus. Surprisingly, they found Read More…
Suzan Mazur interviews virologist Luis Villareal on COVID-19
Virologist Luis Villarreal: All of these RNA viruses exist as quasispecies, which is a population of variants that hover around the average.
Free Webinar: ID and COVID-19 with Michael Behe
Michael Behe, author of Darwin Devolves, will be speaking on “Design in Virology?” on Friday, 3 pm Eastern (8 pm British time).
A 101 video on Covid-19
Here: Food for thought. END
Virus expert highlights the conflict over whether viruses are alive
From science writer Suzan Mazur, at Oscillations, interviewing Bogdan Dragnea, who studies the physical structure of viruses via spectrosopy: Suzan Mazur: Do you consider viruses live organisms since viruses can recognize their targets, attach, and infect their hosts—most viruses using a tail spike and needle [see following Parent lab image]—and as you’ve noted, they can Read More…
Viruses invent their own genes? Then what is left of Darwinism?
From ScienceDaily: In 2013, the discovery of two giant viruses unlike anything seen before blurred the line between the viral and cellular world. Pandoraviruses are as big as bacteria, and contain genomes that are more complex than those found in some eukaryotic organisms (1). Their strange amphora shape and enormous, atypical genome (2) led scientists Read More…
Panspermia (maybe life came from outer space) is back, in Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology
Abstract: We review the salient evidence consistent with or predicted by the Hoyle-Wickramasinghe (H-W) thesis of Cometary (Cosmic) Biology. Much of this physical and biological evidence is multifactorial. One particular focus are the recent studies which date the emergence of the complex retroviruses of vertebrate lines at or just before the Cambrian Explosion of ∼500 Ma. Read More…