Viruses Reconsidered
The discovery of more and more viruses of record-breaking size calls for a reclassification of life on Earth.
http://www.the-scientist.com//?articles.view/articleNo/39244/title/Viruses-Reconsidered/
Quite interesting to me as a biochemist. So much has changed since I was in school, I need all new books! I was particularly intrigued by the idea of the virophages or viruses that attack viruses. There probably isn’t anything on earth that is immune from attack, probably a necessity of life. I am also intrigued by the idea of a fourth branch (in addition to eukaryotes (cells with a nucleus), prokaryotes (cells without a nucleus) and archea, the latter a relatively recent addition and used to be included with prokaryotes). It actually makes more sense to me that classification should be so difficult. I expect that millions, likely billions or even trillions of replicating ‘organisms’ arose more or less at the same time in the evolution of life on Earth; it makes sense that the successful ones would borrow successful bits from one another. Indeed, I suspect additional chemistries evolved as well (i.e., not DNA/RNA/protein based), but due to the formation of the moon only a few (or single!) chemistry was able to survive the impact (I believe I have seen models that posit that even though the entire surface of the Earth would have been molten, there exists a few places that would have been cool enough to sustain life). Alternatively, during the late heavy bombardment the competing chemistries may have lost out (models are quite convincing that there were places even on the surface where life might have survived).
Our world is so much more interesting than mundane politics makes out; I wish people would be more interested in this and less about gay marriage, immigration or racism (sometimes life is happier with rose colored glasses on).
