Giant Viruses Blur The Line Between Alive and Not

[@Master_Therion]

Being classified as a living organism is very popular. I'm not surprised it's gone viral.

[@KOKO-uu7yd]

🤣👍

[@suranumitu7734]

93 93/93

[@limiv5272]

Nice

[@MAD-SKILLZ]

Elelel bing elellel

[@heavymetalbassist5]

lolz

[@brighid9527]

"They went from being a branch of the tree of life to a parasitic vine that wraps around it" such a poetic way of explaining this

[@Radi0ActivSquid]

And they can take DNA from everything around them and grow bigger. Possibility of there being an organism like The Flood increased.

[@wendymoyer782]

My favourite part of this episode!

[@odmcclintic]

Very metal 🤘🏻

[@walterruano9831]

Overly dramatic. Mad me stop and laugh

[@bananawitchcraft]

They didn't come up with that analogy, I've heard it elsewhere before, but I do think it does a pretty good job of illustrating the relationship between viruses and living organisms.

[@ricardoludwig4787]

Considering how much parasites are able to simplify all across the tree of life, it wouldn't be that absurd for a parasite to reply so much on hijacking hosts that it loses its own ribosomes, but the other way around would also make sense

[@zachh3296]

Yeah this makes the most sense imo.

[@nerdolo748]

The idea of horizontal gene transfer being much wider and cross-domain than we thought is fascinating. Tree of life may just become all tangled and looped when it comes to microlife

[@solar0wind]

I think even horizontal gene transfer between plants and insects has been found.

[@rexxbailey2764]

YEAH ! CAUSE IN THE END ALL YOU GOTTA KNOW IS " LIFE FINDS A WAY " !!!😌

[@RockiestRock]

After finding out that Darwin's finches were all breeding with each other instead of the nice evolutionary tree that Darwin came up with, I'm not surprised...

[@sandraleung7218]

Reminds me of the recent discovery of the giant bacterium found in a swamp in Guadeloupe, which has its own membrane-bound organelles!! Nature never ceases to amaze and humble us!

[@lowie7777]

Something I will never forget from undergrad is a professor that referred to viruses as “something” that self replicates, not something alive. It blew my mind back then.

[@logenvestfold4143]

I was taught that in my honors bio class. I thought it was fascinating yet wrong. Almost like a gatekeeping on what we consider alive or not. Nothing inorganic behaves this way so why shouldn't viruses be considered living beings? Because it makes us justified in killing them? Well we kill more complex organisms with far less concern. Seems like more of an ethical argument rather than a scientific one.

[@TonyWhite22351]

Sounds like the professor didn’t understand the difference between life and death ! Has anyone ever seen a house brick self replicated ?

[@guillermoa.nerygomez8782]

@@TonyWhite22351 Viruses are just instructions to copy those instructions on the wetwear they are on. They are not the complete set of wetwear that uses energy as a motor does to do the work entailing the whole process that is life.

[@D00dlebugInc]

@@TonyWhite22351 are you.. Implying that people call bricks "viruses"?

[@allangibson2408]

@@TonyWhite22351 No - because it doesn’t happen. Viruses subvert other living matter to replicate themselves. Bricks don’t include the instructions to make other bricks…

[@Triairius]

I’m new to this channel, but this woman is an _excellent_ speaker. I didn’t miss a single word, and she had my attention and interest from start to finish.

[@sarantis1995]

Excellent work, I love how much effort they put on putting together such explanatory videos of high scientific quality but also style. The narrators add to the whole thing. As a biologist I've been following this channel fiercely

[@PeachesCourage]

Most likely exosomes as viruses don't exist Virus Mania by Dr's around the world Gov trapped medical and now so are Dr's the book written so we know the truth

[@mellanders6957]

I am a biologist. But, I have always felt that our definition of what is "alive" is the only reason viruses are not considered living organisms.

[@gingermcgingin4106]

It literally is. In fact, some biologists do consider them to be alive.

[@guifdcanalli]

most of the new biology students are actually alligned with the idea they are indeed alive me as well, they repeoduce, they change their environment, they generate offspring and they evolve, i think those are the real characteristics of a living beinf

[@alexandramcginnis8872]

G My school’s goal is to teach us science. As in teach us about debate. My college taught us that it’s a debate if it’s alive or dead. We even were taught multiple definition of species

[@rogeriopenna9014]

@@guifdcanalli a computer program can also do those and still its not alive. Viruses are not killed. They are destroyed. They don't possess any living characteristics unless they enter a host cell (which happens by natural chemical processes)

[@iamdanieloliveira]

I get what you're saying, but that's a funny way of putting it. Of course if our definition of "alive" was different we'd classify different things as alive. If our definition of a "dog" was "a vehicle with 4 wheels" we'd classify jeeps as dogs.

[@cinderball1135]

Fortunately I'm not a giant, so I can't catch one of these viruses.

[@ChrisNoonetheFirst]

Big talk

[@tardvandecluntproductions1278]

>Me, a Dutch person. Ah crap.

[@limiv5272]

Compared to an amoeba, you ARE a giant

[@charlesjmouse]

It's a funny thing: Us humans function through categorising everything, it's a necessary part of our cognition. One consequence is we tend to think the world around us really is made up of these categories and so we are continually surprised when things pop up that don't fit. This should be no surprise at all.

[@napoleonfeanor]

It's called scientific progress based on new evidence. Science does not work without classifications. This postmodernist deconstruction thing doesn't help anybody and makes scientific progress impossible. Previous classifications that are no longer used are simply the scientific conclusions from times with less evidence (often because they did not have the technologies of today) available and made (though imperfect) sense based on what was known then. Surprise, curiosity and wonder are nothing bad.

[@edwarddorey4480]

*We humans

[@pluspiping]

"We found a new type of virus in your water tower lol" might sound like HORRIFYING news, but it was reassuring to hear later in the video that most giruses target smaller and simpler organisms.

[@CadetKosmov]

PBS Eons people are so cool. If only I could listen to them for hours in a podcast... Wait

[@rosaliegrace905]

I love all the videos that they host! And viruses are endlessly cool

[@limiv5272]

Only as long as they stay out of my cells...

[@dzunepwnsipod]

It always struck me as weird that viruses are considered to be non living. They evolve and succeeds in ways life does. Their ability to reproduce and evolve makes me think viruses are alive, I believe our definition of life is limited, or too narrow.

[@jesusramirezromo2037]

Its because they can't reproduce without hijacking a cell, without life, they are just inert particles Like how Prions aren't alive

[@zddxddyddw]

Well, the thing is, they don't reproduce (and therefore evolve) through their own means, they depend on their host's genetic machinnery to do that, unlike true living organisms. If you consider viruses to be alive, then where do you stop? Because prions do the same thing, except they are just misfolded proteins. Would you consider a lone protein to be a living being too?

[@Stellarcrete]

@@zddxddyddw I don't think the phrase "by their own means" is very compelling. I am a male. I can't evolve or reproduce without a female, does that mean I am not alive? At the level of cells, sure some cellular organisms can reproduce and evolve under their own means, but only my undifferentiated stem cells can reproduce any of the cells in my body and some of my cells can't reproduce at all "by their own means", while almost none of my cells can "evolve" by their own means, because only germ cells can do that, but of course sperm cells can't reproduce on their own so.... It's not a pathway, applying the currently terrible definition of "reproduce and evolve on their own" to more or less things isn't the right answer. The right answer is coming up with a better definition of life. I don't think a sperm is alive the same way a dog is alive is the same way an amoeba is alive is the same way a brain cell is alive is the same way a bacteria is a alive is the same way fetus is alive is the same way a virus is alive is the same way prion is alive is the same way a plant is alive. For that matter, none of these things are alive the way a planet with water and breathable atmosphere is alive. Finally, if something is hibernating for 100,000's of years is that alive the same way as it is when it's in its exponential growth phase? You can say that all of these things except prions, viruses, and planets have the ABILITY to reproduce and evolve on their own in some part of their lifecycle regardless of whether they currently do or are evolving and reproducing, but under that amended definition, viruses DO have the ability to evolve and reproduce on their own, it's just that 99.99% of the time virus is not actively using cellular machinery from a host cell to produce virions, but when it is, then it does have the ability and can therefore be called alive. Just like a woman can evolve and reproduce once she has sex but the other 99.99% of her time she isn't alive, and if she's castrated or goes through menopause then she is dead?

[@dzunepwnsipod]

@@zddxddyddw I don't know if it's even important that something reproduce by it's own means, as long as it reproduces. A protein doesn't have genetic information, so it can't reproduce. It can only be constructed by something else. A virus can reproduce, it inserts its own DNA into a cell, and uses that cell to reproduce, before the cell bursts open. It's not too dissimilar from parasites on larger scales. There is a parasite for fish, I forgot which, but it started out as an independent living animal, but evolved into a parasite. It didn't need eyes, so it lost them. It didn't need its own stomach, so it lost it. If viruses evolved from giruses, but adopted a parasitic life style, on a cellular level, there are a lot of adaptations it wouldn't need. Why spend the energy doing reproduction yourself, when you could make your host do it for you?

[@Bacteriophagebs]

The problem is that scientists defined what makes something "alive," before virus' nature was known. There's nothing that works quite like a virus, so they can be considered a 4th branch on the tree of life or an anomaly equally easily. No one pretends that they're just some kind of chemical reaction, even if they're not considered "alive." It's an entirely semantic argument, not a biological one.

[@freedomsymphony7627]

The idea that viruses can be the remains of cells is a very good one, I like it. It would be something like the phenomenon of a fresh corpse being able to move and perform small actions before it rots.

[@zaddyjacquescormery6613]

PBS Eons, can you do something about prions next? I don’t understand what they are, and when I asked an old doctor, he said he didn’t honestly know either. (not his specialty and far less was known about them, if any, when he was in med school)

[@RocLobo358]

They are misfolded proteins which can cause other proteins to misfold. The Wikipedia article is pretty decent. Id say I want a video on prions too but they're terrifying

[@yukinagato1573]

The idea is that proteins depend on two things to do what they are supposed to do: their chemical composition AND their physical structure. A certain chemical composition might behave in COMPLETELY DIFFERENT ways depending on it's shape.

[@ugaladh]

yes, when I went to medical school in the late 70s, those diseases caused by prions were thought to be caused by a "slow virus". I recall some Survivor type show on TV once, were contestants had to eat something yucky - worms, bug, raw cow brain. I thought, If I got selected for brain, I"d just quit on the spot, I'm not eating anything's brain due to prions.

[@zaddyjacquescormery6613]

Thank you for those thoughtful replies, Stine W and Yuki Nagato. One of the things that I don’t comprehend about prions is their transmissibility. I understand how they can infect a new host though ingestion, but are they able to pass from one to another by different means? The prions that I know of are usually ingested by humans when they eat herbivores, but how are they passed from one deer or cow to another? Are they transmissible by any means other than ingestion?

[@zaddyjacquescormery6613]

@@ugaladh Absolutely. I cannot believe that this hasn’t happened to someone on one of those shows after eating raw brains yet (that I know of).

[@taylorhillard4868]

I don't think there should be a "too simple" to be alive. The ability to act against entropy in an organized manner, for me, is special enough to count.

[@Madrawn]

But that's the point. The thing you think of when saying virus does nothing to prevent the internal increase in entropy. Only the infected cell does anything like that. Viruses are as alive as a mouse trap and when you step on it you look down and see a sticky note on it that reads "wouldn't it be funny if this happened to other people? Here's how to build me, and don't forget the note: ...". Your common sense to not waste your and your friends time is your immune system in this analogy.

[@taylorhillard4868]

@@Madrawn bad analogy. And it does work against disorder. It works to reorder and replicate its surroundings in order to replicate. Just because it uses the system of a cell to do that, like a parasite, doesn't mean it's not doing something against the flow of natural disorder.

[@regulate.artificer_g23.mdctlsk]

@@Madrawn Consider the following: *viruses contain genetic material, it can be replicated and it can mutate *they are subject to Darwinian evolution *they aren't mere inanimate objects like crystals, fire, or your mousetrap

[@Madrawn]

@@regulate.artificer_g23.mdctlsk The note in my example contains information regarding the mousetrap, similar to what the virus dna does for the virus. And the information contained in the note can mutate, either by the environment (for the note it might be a raindrop, for DNA a stray ray of radiation), or by copying error, just like DNA can. The virus shell and the DNA record it stores 'does' absolutely nothing a note on a mousetrap doesn't also "do". If the virus shell and DNA is to be considered "alive" while it's waiting for a cozy cell to infect and mutate in, then we might as well call pictures of memes alive while they wait for a cozy mind to infect and mutate in. I'm not saying there isn't something alive within the reproductive cycle of a virus that is distinct from the cells it hijacks, but the string of 4 character text inside box of dead material isn't it by any definition of alive.

[@regulate.artificer_g23.mdctlsk]

@@Madrawn It's still a pretty bad analogy, and the argument isn't _viruses are alive because they have genetic material,_ the argument is _we should define life based on whether or not it can evolve and participate in natural selection._ The mousetrap in this analogy doesn't have a "purpose" in its ecosystem - it just expects that whatever it ensnares is sapient enough to read the instructions it has written on it and _actually_ follow what it's suggesting to the reader to do. The way I see it, it's the genetic material (DNA/RNA, single strand/double strand) that really matters here. The fact that nucleic acid molecules on their own can't do anything is irrelevant - and that is true to all current living things - lest we get to a point where only ribozymes can be called "alive". Most of the time, the only reason viruses need to get a host is for resources; they already have genes for replication proteins and sometimes transcription proteins - they can even carry those with them - and in some cases, they have genes for ribosomes - specifically ribosomal proteins. This doesn't make them any different from single celled parasites that invade other cells, which are very similar, up until the motility part perhaps. Although there are some parasitic bacteria that are nonmotile ("cystic" IIRC).

[@BenTajer89]

There's also the hypothesis that viruses predate organismal life (which I think you touch on in another video). From this view, mimivirus could be more of a "living fossil", something that existed as an intermediate from when communities of symbiotic genes were starting to coalesce into larger genomes. While the lineage that lead to all organismal life would have packaged the full translational machinery into a set that allowed self replication, these viruses would represent a lineages that stopped short of the final step of integrating the whole transcriptional machinery.

[@jamiearnott9669]

Great video on the strange viruses recently discovered. So could you say that through genetic mixing this virus is a hybrid and possibly a separate classification in itself?

[@myld_panic4416]

I just realised this is slowely but surely becoming my favourite channel of all time.

[@chaosdweller]

Yer name haha.

[@emmetthowell899]

I don’t know how but the eons crew always make explaining science sound like poetry

[@pluspiping]

Now that I think about it, I don't think it's coincidence that when humans try explaining That Which Resists Explanation, we often resort to art and poetry✨

[@aaronhill182]

microbiology is not my favorite but wow this video was exciting! bravo PBS Eons!

[@SuperVstech]

Star Trek voyager thought up MACRO VIRUS in an episode long before these were actually discovered… kinda cool.

[@josephertz5786]

Really enjoyed this episode and appreciate what you do to help understand our world

[@rangerjones5531]

the science teacher we all wanted❤️

[@yaboig5629]

End of the World theory: Giant viruses grow to the size of humans and compete with us for dominance over earth

[@kansascityshuffle8526]

Found in a cooling tower. The most amazing things found in some very mundane places.

[@sixthousandblankets]

Imagine all other forms of "life" in the universe. We wouldn't know where to start if we encountered them.

[@faesommers]

giruses seeing other genes after infecting an amoeba: “jot that down, jot that down!”

[@Methodician]

This video helped connect a lot of dots for me about viruses in general. Thanks for putting it together! Also: love the outfit.

[@haroldnecmann7040]

There's giant virus inside her

[@calibaba2739]

Thank you. I think horizontal gene transfer is the answer. But if it is true, the evolution tree is nor a simple tree anymore. There branches sometime touch each other and create new species with endless possibilities.

[@donkique956]

Let's help make this video go viral.

[@Tomartyr]

Always feels weird to see a TV channel putting out quality content

[@intrestedinallthings]

I don't understand: if they are descended from an ancient extinct 4th branch of life...wouldn't that branch not be extinct and be occupied by them? Alternatively: I don't understand: if they are an amalgamation of the three branches of life and don't belong to any, wouldn't they be a 4th branch of life?

[@johntillman6068]

Eukaryotes descend from archaea which engulfed bacteria (ancestors of our mitochondria), so we are a mashup of the two endosymbiotic prokaryotic domains.

[@masonloeffler8064]

No because they aren’t alive so they wouldn’t be on any branch of life

[@johntillman6068]

@@masonloeffler8064 If some DNA viruses descend from degenerate cellular organisms, then they are on the Tree of Life and indubitably alive, phylogenetically.

[@maddieb.4282]

They would be if they were considered alive.

[@ugaladh]

The problem with viruses and "life" is that our current definition of life includes that the organism has to be able to reproduce itself. Viruses cannot reproduce on their own, so they aren't considered "alive" by that definition., They do reproduce but by hijacking a cell. Basically, we find that our definitions have become inadequate to cover all we can discover now, but an accepted new definition hasn't yet been made.

[@MimesAgainstHunmanity]

That episode had the best joke you have had in quite some time.

[@samsonsoturian6013]

"Are you a being or a machine?" "I am both, and neither."

[@DylanMatthewTurner]

Maybe our definition of "alive" is too specific, and viruses should be included

[@krokovay.marcell]

For what?

[@NullHand]

Like the definition of "planet", as we uncover more knowledge, we find that our human reductive catagorization made in the past is now too general for scientific heavy lifting. Another one is the imprecise definition of "human". Should this include H. neandethalensis, and the Denisovans, since we contain recent chunks of their DNA? What about all the rest of the latter day H. Erectus morphs we keep uncovering? The one main thing viruses lack, that everything else we consider alive has, is a metabolism. If we do manage to push the "tree of life" back to abiogenesis, we are going to have an even harder time defining "alive", and may have to start admitting mere chemical reactions into the family....

[@DylanMatthewTurner]

@@NullHand Us humans thrive on categorization. If only we weren't so bad at it lol

[@lucalinadreemur9448]

Haven't watched it yet, i saved it to watch later, but I'm just gonna say going into it that i consider them alive. They replicate, they feed, that makes them alive. We just don't want to admit that our definition of life is a little too strict to what is "typical"

[@brandonantonio9261]

wondering did you remember to watch this lol

[@kforest2745]

Active vs nonactive requires physical vs nonphysical pursuit

[@lillycastitatis6807]

“It’s evolving, just backwards”

[@christopherbrand5360]

What is “forwards” in evolution?

[@TheRedKnight101]

Evolution only goes forward, if having a "regressed" life cycle is best suited for survival then that is how a species will evolve.

[@deeliciousplum]

Oh, my gerd! That submitted joke was so painful. I love it!

[@sapphirII]

If they were once cells, does it mean they're living dead? Zombies?!!!

[@GenerationX1984]

I've always suspected that viruses are the original zombies.

[@thomassaldana2465]

I would actually say that viruses in general are the grey area between life and chemistry, and that the mimiviruses (and similar) are towards the 'life' end of that grey area.

[@IAmNumber4000]

“They’ve turned up everywhere from the soil, to the seabed, and even buried in 30,000 year old Siberian permafrost” Put that thing back where it came from or so help me…

[@CyberThug1080i]

My cells: Is it getting hot in here or is it me?🧔🏾❤️😸

[@Jobobn1998]

Molecular biologist here. I tend to lean towards the idea that viruses descend from cellular life for the simple reason that it's easier (more probable) for biological machines to lose structures and information than to gain it (even factoring in horizontal gene transfer). Mitochondria, for instance, lack all of the genes required to be self sustaining, and rely heavily on DNA from the nucleus. But we know that it is infinitely more probable that mitochondria descend from a prokaryote that "moved in" to a eukaryote cell than from a virus, because, were it originally a virus, it would have had to evolve a tremendous number of structures to become its modern form. Where, if it were originally a prokaryote, it would simply have to lose a number of genes through random mutation. So, while hardly conclusive, I just find it a more parsimonious hypothesis that viruses progressively simplified from a parasitic, cellular ancestor.

[@Anusha2U]

I love these videos ❤️🥰

[@Kernovian1964]

Note that the second of the two hypotheses presented here explicitly DOES NOT exclude a fourth domain of life, unless it is proven that viruses are definitely not an offshoot of one of the three known branches of life.

[@lexandrosphynx1049]

To be fair, viruses in general blur the lines on what counts as a living organism. When classification into discrete categories depends on a constellation of criteria, definitions get hazy. Any lines drawn at that point are, to a certain degree, arbitrary.

[@jaredf6205]

Look up the video “do chairs exist” by Vsauce, it goes deep into this idea.

[@lexandrosphynx1049]

@@jaredf6205 Good video. That is my point, but in regards to biochemistry in this case rather than ontology.

[@adamdudziak1958]

Thanks!

[@alantelinen6309]

The host is doing a fantastic job!

[@jacobwilson6296]

Old cell is eaten by slime. "Oh well, guess I'll be a virus."

[@mistyninjax]

I love background the music for this

[@CarlosCMPinto]

What would intelligent life look like in a place that has constant daylight? It's never night. They never saw the stars except the sun. Do they even imagine that the universe exists?

[@heavymetalbassist5]

Annie and Eric Higgins must be cool people to help support every video

[@damiensadventure]

Viruses very much are trippy! Also the narrator lady is awesome.

[@matthewdolan5831]

Good presentation. I no longer ask if it is 'alive', more a position on a continuum...

[@johnwhite-q7s]

Life is special but not as special as we think and viruses really seem to illustrate this. There’s obviously some kind of important dynamic between matter and energy in the universe and life is a complex manifestation of that

[@Troglodude05]

Yo you gotta add a link to your playlist it’s amazing

[@Cnichal]

Looking like a classy 1920’s archaeologist! 🤩😍

[@miguelitojones8252]

Love your new look.

[@ÁzsiábaSzakadtam]

We are looking at the skies and waiting for some extraterrestrial life to appear while a different kind of life form is developing in front of our very eyes.

[@kamhinleong397]

Throwing words like translation, machinery, code, etc around casually and call these self-replicating processes a product of random chance, very convincing.

[@Jop_pop]

Michelle you look awesome in this! The hair and outfit are sweet

[@SeungCanFade]

Love these weird virus videos. Also not to detract from the great content, but that outfit today was a whole vibe!

[@samwill7259]

Oh cool, another new discovery that flips the table of everything we thought we knew about the nature world. That's...I mean that doesn't freak me out at all when that happens/s

[@halla3184]

Only goes to show how little we actually know :') Every answer we find only uncovers more questions. The pursuit of knowledge and understanding is fractalesque. Terrifying. But also really beautiful

[@dersven4122]

I like this new host. She speaks camly, giving you time to understand and appreciate the topic discussed in the videos

[@steffenvongrabau7260]

The tree of life used in this video is a bit outdated, since eukaryotes have been recognized as descendants of archaea (Asgardarchaeota to be precise) but not as having a shared common ancestor with all archaea. Please consider using an updated version in future videos. Maybe asgardarchaeota could also be a great topic for a future video

[@Stratosarge]

So wait.. We are all descendants of Asgardians?! Sweet!

[@sabarinathan1287]

Can u do a video on Carbon dating. How it changed the way we look into fossils!

[@stephanreiken9912]

The way evolution works, that these exist is nothing surprising at all. These in-between things must exist for the split between two to have occured.

[@samguitarguy]

Really well presented. Like this new teacher. Great job :)

[@CourtneyCoulson]

Giruses are fascinating and all, but also that outfit is awesome.

[@mattbough]

I know this isn’t the point of the video, but Michelle looks so cool in that wrap shirt. Tens, tens, tens across the board!!!

[@semaj_5022]

This was a really great episode! I really enjoyed how you presented and juxtaposed the two hypotheses. Also unrelated, but I really like your outfit in this ep! It looks great and suits you very well.

[@johnd9031]

Clear presentation of the two hypotheses. I’ll go with the smorgasbord amoeba one.

[@333zekiel]

the host is gorgeous omg. the outfit + hair + makeup is everythinggggg (& the vid was super interesting)

[@tabby73]

I think she looks terrible

[@333zekiel]

@@tabby73 aw it must be hard having such bad taste :( get well soon!

[@_zurr]

I'm still reeling from the fact that there is a giant virus in the shape of a d20.

[@zell9058]

Genetic pickpockets lol

[@Jason1975ism]

Planets may or may not be necessary for life to evolve. Some of the gas clouds out there... I think we might find, some day, that life is not only common in the universe, but it's probably in all sorts of unexpected places.

[@luthfiannisarusdartoputri307]

While enjoying this intriguing episode, I also love ur outfit! Thanks for bringing this topic.

[@MrThatguyuknow]

The whole argument against viruses not being alive has always felt highly pedantic. I understand philosophical comparisons people countering it, like fire not being alive, or a storm. But when something actively changes it's surrounding with DNA/RNA instructions, I'd argue splitting hairs is loosing the forest through the trees. If anything, those kinds of arguments only work to *expand* what we would consider life later on during space exploration.

[@scottsnyder2239]

I find it more likely viruses share a rybozyme ancestor, some of which become ribosomal cells and some of which became viruses (without ribosomes)

[@windsorcorbin1005]

The possibility of finding similar lifeforms on other planet's or moon's that have 💧 just seemed to have gotten better once you recognize the lifeforms on your own planet.

[@hollyodii5969]

More dinos. Weird Triassic creatures. Mega fauna. Crazy sea life. Synapsids.

[@GiantEagle610]

Genetic pickpocket! Coolest term I heard today.

[@hnmAck]

Got damaged by the t-Rex joke, 5 points to Gryffindor

[@farkasmactavish]

I miss Steve. :(

[@jaytex8910]

Just miss a host without a stupid nose piercing.

[@DFloyd84]

We're not sure whether he's alive or not.

[@rybaneightsix5085]

It's a Zergling, Lester. Smaller type of Zerg. But they wouldn't be out here unless..

[@Daveomabegin]

Stunning ensemble girlfriend! The look is fierce 😊👍🏻⭐

[@ericinman9245]

As I earned my Bachelors in Biology, the hallmarks of living organisms were ingestion, digestion, metabolizing, excretion, respiration, mobility and reproduction. I was under the assumption that viruses only replicate. Yeah, it was debatable for plants as mobile, but they spread don't they?

[@adrijobecq]

I miss Steve

[@AnonymousAlcoholic772]

Gyruss was a great video game from the eighties and if atari predicts biologys future im holding out for the pitfall virus.

[@claudiameisters3300]

Does it sound really left field to suggest that they’re similar in a way to gametes? Carrying only a portion of the sequence to be met with a reciprocal set.

[@redoktopus3047]

Kind of gross that because you're all reading the nb host as a girl (which they are not) you think it's ok to make comments on their appearance.

[@chelseacomps829]

Think this video will go viral 🤙

[@beowulf555]

So a zombie apocalypse is really possible then.

[@X1Y0Z0]

Another interesting & informative presentation

[@jumboegg5845]

Viruses just like parasites must have evolved after the host organsim. Parasites are so evolved they have lost the ability to survive on their own, they need the host to survive, just like viruses. Seems to me these giruses may simply be less evolved viruses, as the lady suggests at 5:45. The alternative hypothesis (6:10) , that giruses have evolved from less complex viruses doesn't make sense, unless it can be shown that the extra genes serve some purpose to the girus.

[@eviljesus84]

This is based on the (very strange) notion, that the virus (or evolution, I suppose) willingly chooses what genetic material to take from the host cell for maximum usefulness. Not that it's a complete lottery, and whatever genes the virus has taken - so long as they don't impair it's functionality - stick around. I think it was one of the hosts on SciShow that put it best: "Evolution isn't efficient, it's just sufficient". Not all genes NEED to serve a purpose, and (seeing as genetic diseases exist) not all purposes are necessarily good. Evolution generally just throws things at the wall, and sees what sticks - and what sticks isn't necessarily always the best, so long as it doesn't get in the way of further reproduction.

[@Innomen]

Tell me you know how to pad a 60 second video without telling me you know how to pad a 60 second video. I half expected her to tell me viruses contain water and then speak for 90 seconds dramatically over stock footage about how import and wide spread water is.