5 ms·

Nitpick but the step between virus and prion is a viroid; a naked piece of RNA. They mostly exist in plants to my knowledge and are basically the smallest possi

by zaarn 8y ago

Nitpick but the step between virus and prion is a viroid; a naked piece of RNA. They mostly exist in plants to my knowledge and are basically the smallest possible infectious disease. The smallest viroids clock in at around 120 base pairs (240 nucleotides).

tossandturn 8y ago
Prions are like gamma-induced bit flips, Viroids are like small code patches, and Viruses are self-deploying code patches.
- jvanderbot 8y ago
  What blows my mind is these aren't really analogies, they are in fact mostly truth.
  - thinkpad20 8y ago
    To be precise, these aren’t really analogies, they are in fact similes. :)
    - kenbellows 8y ago
      To be precise, similes are a type of analogy
selimthegrim 8y ago
What's a virion? https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/dec/10/mysterious-paralyzing-illness-children-record-total-cdc https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/dec/10/mysterious-p...
- arkades 8y ago
  A virion is the singular noun for a viral particle. The viral genetic material plus capsid equal an individual virion.
- zaarn 8y ago
  Virion and Viriod are two different things. The former is about 10 to 100 times larger than the later.