This podcast could provide fodder for those who believe that I lead a pathetically sheltered life. But reading about how some viruses play such an integral role in our survival and most likely that of all living beings triggered quite a natural light bulb moment for me. It probably always would have. But it hit me particularly hard because increasingly it seems like “virus” is perceived as synonymous with “pathogen” or even “big terrible pathogen that must be destroyed asap at any cost or at least vaccinated against”.
An excellent overview of some of these genomic viruses appears in this New York Times article written by one of my favorite science writers, Carl Zimmer. If you’d like to know more about how these viruses wind up in the genome and persist over eons, check out this short crash-course video on the subject.
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