Tag Archives: viruses

Viruses may be the missing piece of the puzzle that could help explain how soft microbial mats transition into hard stromatolites that are prevalent in such places as Shark Bay and the Pilbara in Australia. Stromatolites at Shark Bay, Western Australia. Image credit: Paul Harrison / CC BY-SA 3.0. Stromatolites …

An international team of scientists from the United States and India has discovered that a component of the skin mucus secreted by a South Indian fungoid frog can destroy many strains of human influenza viruses and protect mice against influenza infection. The discovery is reported in the journal Immunity. This …

Viruses reproduce by infiltrating living cells and taking over the biological machinery inside. It’s an insidious process that can leave the host with a life-threatening illness, a mild fever, or no ill effects at all. Recent advances in medical science have allowed humans to combat viruses like never before, but …

Researchers from Austria and the United States have identified a group of giant viruses — Klosneuviruses — that harbor components of many other viruses and proteins, and their analyses suggest that Klosneuviruses acquired the various components in an evolutionarily recent time frame, likely from, and as an adaptation to, their …