Virus? What the H**l is That?

All this talk in the news about the coronavirus got me to thinking about viruses. That’s not much of a stretch but I realized that most people have no idea what a virus is. We take in those sorts of terms and match them up with some vague notion we have from somewhere and carry on with our day. What the hell is a virus?

We hear about viruses in the computer world (malicious bits of software that move around the internet seeking a computer to infect so the user will be angry and frustrated). We all know that biological viruses are something that spreads disease. Perhaps that’s all we need to know. Yet the biology of viruses is really fascinating and mysterious and it has baffled biologists for a long time. Let us share in the mystery.

Viruses are tiny bits of biological chemistry that exist in the microscopic world. They are so small (17 nanometers or smaller) that even using fancy microscopes you can either barely see them, or not see them at all. They are slightly larger than a big molecule.

When we think about one of the other major sources of disease in life – bacteria – we are also talking about very small micro-organisms. By scale, if a bacterium is an elephant, then a virus is a baby skunk. Compared to viruses, bacteria are large complex living things that usually are one cell big (microscopic). Their cells are filled with little structures (organelles) that perform different chemical functions for the bacteria. (Organelles are to organs and symphonetas are to symphonies.) Some bacteria are able to convert sunlight into food like plants do.

Viruses are not cells. They are fragments of genetic material with a protein coating on them. They are bits of DNA with a coating on them. DNA is the source coding of all life. Thus, a virus is a fragment of information with a protective coating. Some biologists don’t think of them as “life” per se at all and dismiss them as chemical rather than biological units. They live outside the world of biological classification. Most of us wish they would go away.

Viruses move around in air or water seeking an animal or plant to infect. Once they find one, the virus attaches itself to a cell of the host and breaks through the cell wall, injecting its genetic material into the cell where it interacts with the host’s genetics and causes havoc. It can cause a human cell to do destructive things for the person. This is how viral infections happen on the microscopic level. Do you have a fever? Maybe you are fighting a virus. Go to your room and stay there for two weeks!

So, viruses are really just fragments of genetics in a little coat looking for a host cell. They are simple so they can change and evolve fairly quickly. Their DNA molecules mix with the host DNA and each is changed by the other. There may even be viruses that cause cancers. There is a scary thought for you. Viruses are like robocalls that look for the gullible and infect their bank accounts.

Thus, a disease-causing virus can change as it infects people in a region. Epidemiologists are able to look at the genetics of a virus and trace it to its origin or compare it to other viruses of the same strain found elsewhere to determine how long a virus strain has been in an area. For example, the coronavirus in Japan is slightly different from those in China and an epidemiologist would be able to figure out that someone getting sick in Colorado could trace their disease ultimately back to Japan – for example.

Now the virus is seated in New Mexico and Colorado and we all think about it constantly while we are in public. Fortunately both states have good governors and state health departments to make up for the slow start the federal government got on the problem because of Donald Trump’s ignorance and self centered approach.

I think back on my time at the University of California, Santa Cruz taking biology in the stout lab buildings among the redwoods and struggling to understand plants and cells and trees and elephant seals and the biology of cells. When we talked about viruses I glazed over completely and daydreamed about the nearby beach and all the people running over the sand while the gulls wheeled overhead. When I brought my attention back to the professor, she was talking about messenger RNA and viruses and how the DNA replicated itself. I thought about the messengers on bicycles up in San Francisco rushing around with papers between offices. Again, I was distracted and had to return my focus to viruses and the danger they pose to all organisms, especially humans.

Now we have a virus that is spreading mysteriously all over the world. Unlike the nasty diseases in Africa that seem to stay in Africa, this one is picking on everyone everywhere. Wealth and clean food won’t protect you. We can’t feel safe from it anywhere. It seems to pop up randomly with no known path to an origin. This makes people uneasy. It makes me uneasy too and I think I’ll hide out in the hills.