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DROP IN THE BUCKET. “An updated literature survey identified 1,407 recognized species of human pathogen, 58% of which are zoonotic. Of the total, 177 are regarded as emerging or reemerging.” A drop in the bucket compared to the millions of species of viruses estimated. https://lnkd.in/gJzt_vK View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE concerns our monumental ignorance about our universe and our planet, as exemplified by our almost non-existent documentation of the most prevalent creature on earth, the mighty virus. Humans have completely missed the boat on this tiny creature, and continue to do so. Many scientists exclude it from the tree of life and deny that it is living, but it probably had and still has more impact on life on this planet than any other single entity. Pedants and ostriches beware: professorships will be castigated when the full extent of our misreadings become widely known. https://lnkd.in/gkwpqWi View in LinkedIn

SILENT MAJORITY. “Whether they are host-associated or free-living, we now know that most viruses (like microbes in general) are not pathogenic to humans, plants, or animals.” https://lnkd.in/g35Hmrp View in LinkedIn

The Guardian view on pesticides: give bees a chance View in LinkedIn

BAD GUY VIRUSES that have caused pandemics get the popular attention, and have killed hundreds of millions of people over the centuries. The 1918 explosive influenza pandemic killed more people than than the first world war. These have been fixed in the public imagination as the portrait of viruses, just nasty germs. https://lnkd.in/gtZ2Tfk View in LinkedIn

GLOBAL CYCLING IMPACT. “Viruses are the most abundant entities across all habitats, and a major reservoir of genetic diversity affecting biogeochemical cycles and ecosystem dynamics.” https://lnkd.in/gGriiyJ View in LinkedIn

GENETIC INNOVATORS. “The huge population of viruses, combined with their rapid rates of replication and mutation, makes them the world’s leading source of genetic innovation: they constantly “invent” new genes.” https://lnkd.in/gVBURjk View in LinkedIn

RECORD RATE OF HYPERMUTATION, in the HIV-1 virus genome: “an extremely high mutation rate of (4.1 ± 1.7) × 10(-3) per base per cell, the highest reported for any biological entity.” https://lnkd.in/gsDz7Gu View in LinkedIn

“VIRAL MUTATION rates have been estimated by independent genetic and biochemical approaches to be in the range of 10(-3) –10(-5) mutations introduced per nucleotide copied, almost a million-fold higher than standard mutation rates operating on cellular DNA.“ https://lnkd.in/gDaeFeM View in LinkedIn

NOT IN THE WEB OF LIFE. “Viruses are the most abundant biological entities on the planet, yet most classical principles of evolutionary biology and ecology were not developed with viruses in mind.” https://lnkd.in/gPxMKj9 View in LinkedIn