Virology
No more viruses?
By Vincent Racaniello
In finishing up details on our new version of "Principles of Virology", I came across this outdated statement in the introduction of volume 19 of "Comprehensive Virology", written in 1984: "Virology, as a science, having passed only recently through its descriptive phase of naming and numbering, has probably reached that ...
Viruses are the ultimate spammers
By Vincent Racaniello
I am always fascinated by how virological terms and concepts are used by the field of computer science. For example, a computer virus is a program that can copy itself and infect a computer without the knowledge or permission of the user. And viral video is content which becomes highly ...
Europic 2008
By Vincent Racaniello
Since Monday I have been in Sitges, Spain for Europic 2008. This is a scientific meeting on picornaviruses held every other year in a European country. The picornaviruses are a family of non-enveloped, positive-strand RNA viruses, and includes poliovirus, rhinovirus, and foot-and-mouth disease virus. I have been attending Europic meetings ...
Creation of a killer poxvirus
By Vincent Racaniello
Nearly one-third of the budget for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, an institute of the National Institutes of Health, goes towards research on bioterrorism. The concern is that pathogenic viruses, bacteria, and other microorganisms might be used in terrorist attacks, and therefore research is required to produce ...
New look for virology.ws
By Vincent Racaniello
I have migrated this blog to WordPress, mainly to enable comments. I encourage you to write questions, opinions, or thoughts about virology using the simple posting functions. I hope to further expand the virology information in this site with podcasts and videocasts.