Viruses: The Ultimate Level of Biotechnology (Maybe...)

Hey, its me again. This next Bio Blog is about biotechnology. I know I COULD just talk about artificial hearts, computer chips inserted between people's eyebrows or even that Robocop movie from who knows how long ago, but where is the fun in that? I know i would probably get me a better mark if I kept to the norm, but its only so often that i get the urge to care about even a part of the tireless army of units I MUST complete (for some reason), and so I will not relent to common sense. All for the best, too. I hate that guy.

what?

Haha. hang out with me more often; I make up my own words sometimes too!

Anyway.. So let me first start by explaining a bit about what viruses are.
They are acellular (they don't have cells), NON-living particles. They are not considered to be living because they do not perform all of the life processes associated with other living beings, such as the ability to transform energy or undergo division. I know what you're thinking now, -"then how can they do so much and act so... lifelike!?"

Then how can the-

You uhh, don't have to repeat what I said.
Anyway, viruses basically attach themselves onto a living cell and deliver their viral genome. The host cell’s building blocks to copy viral genomes and synthesize viral proteins. These genomes and proteins then self-assemble and exit the host cell as new infected particles.

That's all very great information, but what does it have to do with Biotechnology?

Well, my first clue came when I saw a picture of a virus.



So, yea.. did anyone else notice that its a perfectly symmetrical geometric shape on stilts? It's hard enough to find straight corners in nature (all that I can think of is a spiderweb right now) let alone a plethora of dice from the Dungeons and Dragons Board Game bent on cellular destruction (which was probably the actual intent of the game in the first place). This actually leads me to my second point. What do viruses do? It seems like their only purpose to it destroy life. Furthermore, they aren't really alive themselves, so their multiplication does not seem balance out. With organisms like bacteria, other species are destroyed in order for them to multiply. They themselves are alive, however, so the balance of life is always maintained. To me (and, hopefully, you aswell) , this seems a lot like a force whose purpose is to counteract nature, as if apart from it. It also bears striking similarity to the computer virus. Computer viruses were made by humans using computers themselves. Couldn't the same be at least partly true for their namesake? Perhaps viruses were created using DNA from living organisms in order to (potentially) destroy all life?

Furthermore, the origin and evolution of viruses remains only at supposition, with almost nothing known about how they came to be.

Wow, there's certainly a lot of 'supposition' here aswell.

Well, its either this or I copy/paste from 20 articles about how cool fake hearts are, but then someone died after like a week but it was still considered a success and then an even better heart was made and somewhere along the line they realized that they should really operate outside because it's closer to the graveyard anyway but they still kept going because dead people aren't good at complaining, then after like fifty people they ironed out the process of giving people hearts but then realized viruses like HIV are a much bigger problem. (exhale)

Go Figure.

Well... i guess i can't argue with you there.

Good. i cant argue with me either. Too many fistfights.
Finally, while this isn't exactly on topic, I did uncover a lot about viruses NOT REALLY EXISTING! Yea, I know, right? Sounds crazy, and I couldn't really understand it enough to reference it, but here's the link http://www.neue-medizin.com/lanka2.htm

Interesting stuff, so what's your summary?

Summary?
Sorry, my good (wo)man. Only an idea I had in my head. If I had any more, I'd write it down. What can I say? -Words happened.


Hmm.. alright. i guess you've given me a lot to think about.

Oh, and by the way... incase you didn't catch the salt of all of that, i was insinuating that viruses were a product of biotechnology gone wrong, or something.

Ah.

http://www.neue-medizin.com/lanka2.htm
http://human-infections.suite101.com/article.cfm/what_is_a_virus
http://people.ku.edu/~jbrown/virus.html
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_do_viruses_exist

Picture Sources:
http://www.fallingpixel.com/products/6024/mains/virus01.JPG