Hemagglutinin is the part of the virus that allows it to bind to the cells in our lungs, to turn them into tiny factories for making more viruses. Because it’s on the surface of the virus, our immune systems react to hemagglutinin first. The problem is that the virus is constantly mut...
less common to humans. Humans are also driving deeper into previously uninhabited areas. Now that we’re living in closer proximity with animals, there’s a higher chance for humans to be infected for the first time while new viruses and parasites are mutating to unlock and i...
Polyclonal antibodiesmake a natural counterpart to mutating viruses because they, too, rely on differing-but-similar protein structures for their binding mechanism. Just like a newly mutated virus will be fairly close in structure to its parent, the different antibody cells used to create a...
The Zika virus is closely related to the viruses of Yellow, Dengue and West Nile fever, all of which cause significant illness and mortality. However, there are many other flaviviruses that are less well known and their hosts include horses, sheep, bats, birds and many other animals. A pape...
In addition to being annoying, these emails are often malicious and can further spread viruses and malware throughout a system. Click Fraud: Many online advertisements and other items on the internet receive money for every click. Botnets are often used to create false web traffic by visiting ...
Once a vaccine has been found, he says, it may take time before people—or at least, those people who understand that masks are essential to controlling the pandemic—feel comfortable going maskless, especially now that we’re all so very aware of how quickly airborne viruses spread. Masks ...
When a virus enters our body, it creates viral proteins that hijack our cells to support their own life. Viruses tend to be made up of RNA or DNA as their genetic material, which can encode these viral proteins. Simple viruses could wind up encoding around 4 proteins where more complex ...
Unlike many viruses, it had no animal reservoir. It survived by transmission between humans only, so it had no place to hide. Most of that is not true of the new coronavirus, but there are crucial lessons connecting the two. Testing that confirms the presence of a virus will tell you ...
The reality is that movements (legal and illegal) of poultry and poultry products, the wild bird trade and movements of wild birds have all contributed to the global spread of the disease. Highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses are very rare in wild birds, and there has been much debate ...
One of the most popular examples of a co-op game is Pandemic, in which players work together to stop the spread of viruses across the globe. It was first released in 2008, and since then, its creator, Matt Leacock, started noticing more and more games that had at least some co-operati...