Scientific American

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

WHAT IS A BACTERIA?

Bacteria are microscopic organisms whose single cells have neither a membrane-bounded nucleus nor other membrane-bounded organelles like mitochondria and chloroplasts. Another group of microbes, the archaea, meet these criteria but are so different from the bacteria in other ways that they must have had a long, independent evolutionary history since close to the dawn of life. In fact, there is considerable evidence that you are more closely related to the archaea than they are to the bacteria.

Monday, December 17, 2007

what is a virus?

A virus (from the Latin virus meaning toxin or poison) is a sub-microscopic infectious agent that is unable to grow or reproduce outside a host cell. Virus diseases inflict a heavy illness and economic burden on humans and animals and can devastate agricultural crops. Each viral particle, or virion, consists of genetic material, DNA or RNA, within a protective protein coat called a capsid. Their shape varies from simple helical and icosahedral (polyhedral or near-spherical) forms, to more complex structures with tails or an envelope. Viruses infect cellular forms of life and are grouped into animal, plant and bacterial viruses.
It has been argued whether viruses are living organisms. Some consider them non-living as they do not meet the criteria of the definition of life. For example, unlike most organisms, viruses do not have cells. However, viruses have genes and evolve by natural selection. They have been described as organisms at the edge of life. Viral infections in human as well as animal hosts, usually result in an immune response and disease. Often, a virus is completely eliminated by the immune system. Antibiotics have no effect on viruses, but antiviral drugs have been developed to treat life-threatening infections. Vaccines that produce lifelong immunity can prevent virus infections.