This Prickly New Material Literally Pops Viruses, With Up to 96% Success

A newly developed silicon material covered with tiny nanospikes is capable of taking out 96 percent of the virus particles unfortunate enough to touch its surface in tests.

Herpes Virus Doubles Risk Of Dementia

Older adults are twice as likely to develop dementia if they’ve been infected with the herpes simplex virus, a new 15-year study concludes.

Ancient viruses helped shape our bodies, brain millions of years ago

Millions of years ago, vertebrates were infected by a virus, which played an important role in the evolution of human beings and the development of brains and human bodies.

15,000-year-old viruses discovered in Tibetan glacier ice

Scientists who study glacier ice have found viruses nearly 15,000 years old in ice samples from the Tibetan Plateau in China. Most of those viruses are unlike any viruses that have been cataloged to date.

New Class of Life Has Been Found in The Human Digestive System

Peering into the jungle of microbes that live within us, researchers have stumbled across what seem to be an entire new class of virus-like objects.

Gigantic viruses discovered

Deep beneath the soil of a Massachusetts forest, an international team of researchers has uncovered a multitude of mysterious, gigantic viruses of unprecedented ecological diversity. 

The Arctic Could Soon Unleash The Next Pandemic

Researchers looked at soil and lake sediment from Lake Hazen, the largest lake by volume north of the Arctic Circle. Sequencing segments of DNA and RNA found in the soil, the scientists sought to identify the pool of viruses present in the environment.

Giant Viruses Are Infecting Algae in a Rare, Floating Lake in The Arctic

Researchers found "giant" viruses – several times larger than typical viruses – affecting microscopic algae just below the boundary between fresh water and salt water. 

Climate change may have driven the emergence of SARS-CoV-2

A new study provides evidence of a mechanism by which climate change could have played a direct role in the emergence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic.

Climate Change Could Reawaken Microbes Of The Ancient Past

Trillions upon trillions of microbes have remained locked away in the Arctic’s permafrost in a “deep sleep” for thousands of years. But the Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world in the wake of climate change. 

New study outlines ways to prevent future pandemics

COVID-19 has devastated our world, but another pandemic could make things worse. Scientists outline ways to prevent pandemics, including ending wildlife trade.

Comets and viruses

Idea of microbes originating from space. Microbes can survive frozen, deep within the permafrost for millions and even billions of years. They might be perfectly adapted for a life on some frozen object, traveling through space.

Coronavirus: WHO declares global health emergency

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday declared the coronavirus a public health emergency of international concern. The UN's health arm said the move was to protect countries with "weaker health systems."

Bacteriophages may help to fight antibiotic resistance

Latest studies showed that bacteria-infecting viruses called bacteriophages, or simply phages, could kill different strains of the bacterium E. coli by making mutations in a viral protein that bound to host cells. 

Unknown virus discovered in 'throwaway' DNA

A chance discovery has opened up a new method of finding unknown viruses.