Microbiologists Patrick Moreira and Purificación López-García, together with virologists Arturo Ludmir and Lynn Enquist, are at the center of a sharp debate over whether viruses count as living ...

For much of modern biology, scientists argued that viruses are not alive, pointing to a basic limitation: they cannot make proteins on their own and must depend entirely on the cells they infect for ...

A giant virus discovered in Japan is adding fuel to the provocative idea that viruses helped create complex life. Named ushikuvirus, it infects amoebae and shows unique traits that connect different ...

Antibiotic resistance is rising fast, killing tens of thousands each year in the U.S. alone—and scientists are racing to find ...

The COVID-19 pandemic led to heightened public interest in learning about viruses and how they can cause diseases. There has been a lot of focus on communicating virology concepts to the general ...

Genetics tools have advanced significantly in recent decades, and have allowed scientist to sequence all of the genetic ...

For decades, biology textbooks have drawn a firm line: viruses are not alive. They lack the machinery to reproduce on their own, they carry no metabolism, and they depend entirely on host cells to ...

Scientists have uncovered over 200 new giant viruses lurking in ocean waters that not only help shape marine ecosystems but also manipulate photosynthesis in algae. These massive viruses once nearly ...

While largely unnoticed, phages do not harm humans. On the contrary, these viruses are gaining increasing popularity as biomedicines to eradicate pathogenic bacteria, especially those associated with ...

Plant viruses represent a major threat to global food production and security, with an estimated burden of approximately 30 billion USD dollars per year. Despite their economic importance, viral ...

A few months into his postdoctoral research at Baylor College of Medicine in 2021, Rafael Michita made a curious observation. Peering at Zika viruses infiltrating placenta cells under a microscope, he ...