Viruses, like those that cause COVID-19 or HIV, are formidable opponents once they invade our bodies. Antiviral treatments strive to block a virus or halt its replication. However, viruses are dynamic ...

The Genetic Control of the Shape of a Virus The protein shell of a virus is an assembly of subunits. In simple viruses the subunits themselves may specify the shape of the shell. Complex viruses seem ...

A new study by researchers at Bar-Ilan University has uncovered that certain ocean viruses—specifically RNA viruses—may disrupt how carbon and nutrients are recycled in the ocean, potentially altering ...

From hot volcanic springs where the water is nearly boiling acid, a University of Virginia researcher and his colleagues have discovered how lemon-shaped viruses got their form. And that discovery ...

A benign virus could help researchers create materials with biomedical, mechanical, and optical properties that can be tuned, similar to collagen, chitin and cellulose basic building blocks. Collagen ...

In a recent study published in the journal PLOS Pathogens, researchers investigated humoral and cell-mediated immune responses to Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, ...

In a new study, published in Cell, researchers describe a newfound mechanism for creating proteins in a giant DNA virus, comparable to a mechanism in eukaryotic cells. The finding challenges the dogma ...

Flu cases are through the roof across the U.S. right now. And, while cold and flu season always packs a punch, it feels like this year has been especially bad. That's because a common strain of flu ...

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Ever since viruses came to light in the late 1800s, scientists have set them apart from the rest of life. Viruses were far smaller than ...