Are Viruses Alive? Mind-Altering Stories about Life and Evolution

About this book

What, really, is life? As young children, we are taught about animals such as giraffes, lions, elephants and itsy-bitsy spiders with eight legs; we learn about trees and flowers from the plant kingdom, about toadstools in the woods and fish in the sea. This teaches us to think of living things as discrete entities with characteristic distinguishing features. Later, in school, we find out that all organisms are made up of cells, and that they evolve by natural selection. This trains us to consider nature as being full of distinct, multicellular creatures that adapt to their surroundings. But this is actually a very simplistic view, shaped by our large, multicellular take on the world.

Exploring the true diversity of life from ten radical perspectives, in this book we embark on a journey with a gene's-eye-view. Along the way, we discover that parasites are the most common type of organism, that viruses might be the precursors to all cellular life on Earth, and how a single genetic mutation can have devastating consequences for the future.

How do bacteria dominate our lives? Do fungi have memory? In what ways is genealogy really about genes and not people? Why did the proto-hippopotamus not reacquire gills? Offering fresh new angles on existence and what shapes it, join Noga Wies on a fascinating adventure through the stuff of life itself.

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Biography

Noga Wies is a lecturer and science writer and editor. She holds a BSc in biology and an MSc in biomedical science and microbiology.