VIRUSES

The biological kind, not the computer kind. And to be honest most of our fellow citizens are more familiar with the second. After all there are ads all over the media selling you "protection" for your devices from the computer viruses. Before Covid it seems like the only time a virus got mentioned was when the flu virus came to town. 

 1965 I was a sophomore in high school. A few years later I took Biology 101 etc at the U of O. I'd say about 1971 or so. Unfortunately my bio textbook didn't survive the move from Springfield so I really don't remember how viruses were covered at the time. It was only 1962 when a group of scientists developed a way to classify virus following the system of Linneaus. The man who first looked at critters through an early microscope. However an onliine AP Biology text I have access to doesn't get to viruses until chapter 21. From what I can see there is a lot more information out there than I had access to. 

Viruses carry genetic material, reproduce, and evolve through natural selection. One of the reasons most of us get flu shots at least every other year. The little beggers insist on mutating regularly and it's a crap shoot that any new ones will end up in this year's vaccine. 

Viruses lack other characteristics of living cells like a complex cell structure. One of the reasons that many scientists aren't sure whether a virus is truly "alive" or not. A virus is a hijacker extraordinaire. A gate crasher. The microscopic version of a home invader. Only in this case the invader procedes to increase and multiply. Takes over your cells and reprograms them. Instead of making more of your cells it becomes a factory assembly line producing new viruses. When the cell fills up, it bursts releasing copies of the original virus.