Viruses

Though viruses are the most abundant life form on Earth, our knowledge of the viral universe is limited to a tiny fraction of the...

A new study of giant viruses supports the idea that viruses are ancient living organisms and not inanimate molecular remnants run amok, as some...

Scientists are trying to unravel a medical mystery involving a new type of coronavirus, which come from that same large family of viruses that...

Infectious bacteria received a taste of their own medicine from University of Missouri researchers who used viruses to infect and kill colonies of Pseudomonas aeruginosa,...

Exposure to school-age children raises the odds that a person with lung disease who catches a cold will actually suffer symptoms like a runny...

As flu season approaches, people who get sick may not realize they can pass the flu not only to other humans, but possibly to other animals, including pets such as cats, dogs and ferrets. This concept, called "reverse zoonosis," is still poorly understood but has raised concern among some scientists and veterinarians, who want to raise awareness and prevent further flu transmission to pets.

In the early 1900s, most researchers believed that DNA was a “stupid molecule,” too simple to be of any value in the transmission of...

A team of scientists from Europe has recently isolated a group of naturally-occurring viruses that specifically target the highly infectious hospital superbug Clostridium difficile (C. diff). Dr Martha Clokie of...

Shedding light on influenza's insidious nature, scientists from the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts have discovered how the flu virus is able to quickly...

Earlier this week Liberia's defense minister, Brownie Samukai told the U.N. Security Council that Ebola "is now spreading like wildfire, devouring everything in its...

The same viruses that make us sick can take up residence in and on the human body without provoking a sneeze, cough or other...

Dread going for a smear test? A simple urine test can pick up the human papilloma virus (HPV) that causes cervical cancer. Though it's...