1,700 viruses found in glaciers

[tristanbgilb]

I was taught that the covid virus is quite small and easily enters the cell through osmosis rather than having a propeller. Maybe the virus is growing in size so that it is getting more difficult to pass through the semipermeable membrane. When they say the virus has mutated, I think maybe it gets bigger or smaller from the mutation. I wonder what physically changes on the virus when it goes through a mutation.

[mister_coffee]

If a virus is not alive, I would still wonder if there are viruses around the universe waiting for a biological being to enter their environment in order to reproduce. For instance, if I go to mars, will I be exposed to alien virus that I had never been exposed to.? Would I need to live in a bubble to prevent attacks from viruses most of no problem but maybe one alien virus able to reproduce in my body; a foreign virus that I have no immunity to.

That can't happen. Viruses co-evolve with their hosts, and you wouldn't have any viruses (or an analogue) without actual conventional life.

You can't be infected by a T4 phage. Nor can you get Tobacco Mosaic virus or Dutch Elm disease. Also, Ponderosa Pine doesn't get the flu and Kelp can't get covid or HIV.

Yes, viruses jump species sometimes, but generally it is between fairly closely related species, and the more distantly related the species the less likely a jump is. We are far more likely to see a species jump from other mammals to us than say from spiders or seaweed.

Unless something really weird and unlikely happened, any alien life isn't likely to be based on the same protein platform (e.g. DNA and RNA) so their analogues to viruses and infectious diseases in general probably wouldn't have any way to attack us. On the other hand, there are a lot of ways to put proteins together to make self-replicating molecules. I would expect any alien life to be wildly incompatible with our own life and would likely be either extremely toxic or produce (at best) wicked allergic reactions in us. This is one more reason that if we ever find a habitable planet (which by definition would have an active biosphere) it probably wouldn't be a pleasant place to live, science fiction stories notwithstanding.

[tristanbgilb]

If a virus is not alive, I would still wonder if there are viruses around the universe waiting for a biological being to enter their environment in order to reproduce. For instance, if I go to mars, will I be exposed to alien virus that I had never been exposed to.? Would I need to live in a bubble to prevent attacks from viruses most of no problem but maybe one alien virus able to reproduce in my body; a foreign virus that I have no immunity to.

[mister_coffee]

Viruses aren't (strictly speaking) "alive".

They can only reproduce by hijacking a living cell to produce approximate copies of itself.

[Rideback]

So you are looking for a conversation of opinions?

[tristanbgilb]

Tristan, Google is our friend

I wonder if you know the answer if you're depending on me to get an answer not from your thoughts but truly from thoughts of another.
I was simply trying to start a decent conversation about a subject that is interesting and mind stimulating. I am not looking to research project. I am just trying to have a casual conversation that is not controversial. I want to get to know my neighbors.

[Rideback]

Tristan, Google is our friend
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK8 ... translated)%20by%20the%20host%20cell.

[tristanbgilb]

I am wondering what is meant by virus particle. I think the description is that of a non-life form. I am curios to what is actually in the ice and elsewhere. Are there viruses through out the universe or is it part of life and unique to earth?

[mister_coffee]

You need to keep in mind that a handful of dirt from your yard has between 100000000 and 100000000000 virus particles, most of them likely unknown to science. So it is interesting that you find virus particles in old glacial ice but not so interesting that a lot of them are unknown.

Best estimates there are on the order of 1000000000000000000000000000000 (that's 10**30) virus particles here on Earth, again most of them likely unknown to science.

[Rideback]

As climate change melts the glaciers it's becoming an ongoing discovery process
https://thinc.blog/2024/08/31/1700-viru ... -its-fine/