What is a Virus? | Breakthrough

less than 1m read

·Nov 11, 2024

Virus is actually just genetic material encased in an envelope, and it actually needs a host like me or you in order for it to infect and continue to produce more copies of itself. So what happens is a virus infects me, let's say, and my immune system starts trying to control that virus. Well, the virus evolves and mutates and changes its genetic material over time to try to outrun my immune system.

So, it's a constant battle between the host and the virus, and basically, they're evolving together, they're co-evolving. Ebola is a filovirus, part of a rare family of viruses transmitted by direct contact with bodily fluids, often blood. By contrast, influenza spreads through droplets sneezed or coughed into the air, which makes it easier to catch.

But unlike most strains of flu, filoviruses kill large percentages of the people they infect, up to 90%. This is why this particular lab may be the most dangerous place on earth; it's dedicated exclusively to testing live samples of Ebola. If just a speck of Ebola virus enters your bloodstream, it can quickly make billions of copies of itself and rip you apart from the inside—a hideous and painful way to die.

The First Meeting of EDUtubers! ft. CGPGrey, Vsauce, Smarter Every Day, Numberphile +more

This Particle Breaks Time Symmetry

View All

Lecture 11 - Hiring and Culture, Part 2 (Patrick and John Collison, Ben Silbermann)

Part two of culture and team, and we have Ben Silberman, the founder of Pinterest, and John and Patrick Collison, the founders of Stripe. Um, founders that have obviously sort of some of the best in the world at thinking about culture and how they build t…

Direction of reversible reactions | Equilibrium | AP Chemistry | Khan Academy

As an example of a reversible reaction, let’s look at the hypothetical reaction where diatomic gas X₂ turns into its individual atoms, X. It would turn into two of them, so X₂ goes to 2X. The forward reaction is X₂ turning into 2X, and the reverse reactio…

Managing your bank account | Banking | Financial Literacy | Khan Academy

In this video, we’re going to talk about how it can be very valuable to automate your deposits and your withdrawals into a checking account, and why that actually might be useful. So in the old days, what would typically happen is someone might cut a che…

Tigers 101 | National Geographic

With their signature orange fur and black stripes, tigers have become icons of beauty, power, and the importance of conservation. Tigers have evolved into six subspecies. The tiger’s tale of evolution can be traced back to about two million years ago when…

Khanmigo Writing Coach

KH Academy is excited to share our latest tool for writing instruction: Kigo Writing Coach, designed by teachers to emphasize the writing process as much as the writing product. Writing Coach is an AI-enabled instructional tool with the purpose of produci…

Colonial Weaponry | Saints & Strangers

[Music] Radio weapons, push off, push off design. Mr. Bradford, fire! This is your standard, uh, standard matchlock musket. It was the earliest firing, uh, musket that there was. This over here is a match cord; both sides were normally kept lit in case …

What is a Virus? | Breakthrough

More Articles