Virus

Our mouths and guts are teeming with mysterious somethings that are unknown to science, new research suggests. A team says they’ve discovered distinct virus-like structures hanging out among the bacteria that live in our bodies. The researchers have coined these structures “obelisks,” and they might further redefine what it means to be a living thing.Alex Winter on the Most Important Modern Horror Movie Viruses are small packages of genetic material made of either DNA or RNA enclosed inside a protective protein shell.…

We may have an adequate understanding of the human body in that, well, we invented aspirin and sequenced the genome, but researchers still find out new things about the humble homo sapien all of the time. Case in point? Scientists hanging out in the human gut and mouth. The researchers are calling these virus-like structures “obelisks”, due to their presumed microscopic shape.These entities replicate like viruses, but are much smaller and simpler. Due to the minuscule size, they fall into the “viroid” class, which are…

After six years of searching, researchers from the University of Basel and ETH Zurich in Switzerland have found what might be a crucial weapon in the fight against superbugs: viruses that are able to prey on and kill dangerous bacteria while they're in a dormant state.Bacteria go into this sleep mode when they're low on nutrients or under various kinds of stress. It's a form of self-protection, which means the bacteria can't spread or grow. Yet existing in a shut-down state also protects them from threats that hijack…

Melting Arctic ice in Siberia may release ancient “zombie” viruses, posing a potential global health crisis, leading scientists have recently warned. Geneticist Jean-Michel Claverie, professor emeritus of medicine and genomics at Aix-Marseille University, told The Guardian: “We now face a tangible threat, and we need to be prepared to deal with it. It is as simple as that.”The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has already reported that the Arctic’s average temperature has risen at a rate three times higher than the…

Each year, the number of threats – as the antivirus companies like to call them – rises. Windows is still a massive target for viruses and other malware, so it isn’t too surprising that your PC or laptop has ended up with one. Good antivirus software, including Defender which is part of Windows 10 and 11, can help a lot, but sometimes it just doesn’t detect or prevent some malware (short for malicious software) from getting through the defences. No security software offers a cast-iron guarantee that it will…

Bacteria often go dormant to avoid being wiped out by antibiotics or other threats, which makes treatment difficult. Now scientists have discovered a virus that can attack these sleeping bugs, clearing out infections effectively when paired with drugs.In hostile environments – such as when they’re exposed to antibiotics – bacteria can go into a form of hibernation, where they stop growing and dividing until things calm down. This makes it difficult to fully wipe them out and contributes to the growing problem of…

Epstein-Barr virus, a common virus that infects most people at some point in their lives, has long been suspected as a trigger of multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease affecting around 36 people in every 100,000 worldwide.But exactly how this virus trips the immune system into attacking the body's own cells, often years later, has mostly eluded scientists.Now researchers at the University of Texas have edged one step closer to showing how the virus sets off immune cells in the early stages of MS, when the first…

Isbell and the 400 Unit nixed a gig in Kansas on Thursday night; they're scheduled to play their first arena concert with Turnpike Troubadours on Friday in Oklahoma City Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit have scrapped their sold-out concert slated for Thursday night at Liberty Hall in Lawrence, Kansas, citing a vocal cord issue affecting the frontman. The gig is the second consecutive show Isbell canceled after postponing last night’s appearance in Springfield, Missouri. Both shows have been rescheduled:…

A study from Washington University School of Medicine has led to the development of a decoy molecule that effectively protects mice from Eastern equine encephalitis virus. By analyzing how the virus binds to cell receptors, researchers created a decoy that blocks infection, offering a new avenue for treatments and preventive measures against this and similar viruses. Credit: SciTechDaily.com Structural biology research also enables scientists to design decoy molecule that blocks deadly infection.An atomic-level…

The tick Ixodes ricinus can transmit the TBE-virus to humans. Credit: Tove Hoffman, Uppsala UniversityA new study conducted by Uppsala University and the University Hospital in Uppsala reveals that the actual number of infections caused by the tick-borne TBE virus is significantly higher than previously estimated. This study, which examined Swedish blood donors, has been published in the journal Eurosurveillance, associated with the EU’s Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.“We were very surprised that such a high…