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Updated every weekday. Please vote! 
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2009-07-03
Viruses are so incredibly basic that you can't even call them life. They are merely some DNA or RNA surrounded by a protective protein coating. Kind of like a biological M&M—they have a thin candy shell, so there's no chocolate mess. The earliest forms of life were even more primitive that modern viruses, but it was self-replication that began life as we know it on Earth.
There are even more basic forms of pseudo-life on Earth, plasmids and prions for example, but I figured I'd stick with something that most people have heard of.
This is a picture of a rotavirus created by Graham Colm. I colored it green to make it look more spooooooky!
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Comments
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Mr. Anderson writes:
| Actually, afaik a virus is not really >>self<<-replicating. It inherently needs a host-cell to reproduce. |
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TheAlmightyGuru writes:
| You know what I hate about viruses Mr. Anderson? It's the smell!
You are right though--modern viruses have several reproductive parts, but not enough to fully reproduce without a host. That is why I qualified the statement with, "-like- a virus." I draw an analogy to a virus because it's something that many people are familiar with.
Well, that, and I don't know enough about chemical biology to give a better example! ;-) |
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Spectre100 writes:
| to compare primitive life to modern life in any form is not only difficult, it's difficult to find something to compare the comparison to... it's like a glowing ember to Hiroshima... |
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Katy writes:
| I proved, when I was 14, that one can indeed melt M&M's in your hand. I even impressed (as in, impressed him with my weirdness LOL) a boy ... |
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TheAlmightyGuru writes:
| However, if you freeze your hand with liquid nitrogen first... |
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Oh the irony!
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