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I recommend "A Planet of Viruses" by Carl Zimmer. It's really short but almost every page is a mind-blower. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10840041-a-pl

I recommend "A Planet of Viruses" by Carl Zimmer. It's really short but almost every page is a mind-blower. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10840041-a-planet-of-viruses https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10840041-a-planet-of-vir... There are viruses that go into the hosts DNA, replicate along with it over generations, then wake up and start being viruses again! The oceans are Grey Goo. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_goo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_goo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_bacteriophage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_bacteriophage > Marine viruses, although microscopic and essentially unnoticed by scientists until recently, are the most abundant and diverse biological entities in the ocean. Viruses have an estimated abundance of 10^30 in the ocean. Marine bacteriophages kill about 40% of all bacteria in the ocean every day. (I don't know why you don't explode into viruses ten seconds after you enter the ocean, there must be a way that the maelstrom of evolution doesn't create monsters, eh? Or maybe we are playing Russian Roulette every time we go in the water?)

mirimir 7y ago
> I don't know why you don't explode into viruses ten seconds after you enter the ocean ... Basically, none of our ancestors did. Or vice versa, mutatis mutandis, and so on.
- thaumasiotes 7y ago
  If you're just slinging random Latin phrases around, you really missed your opportunity to end with et cetera.
  - mirimir 7y ago
    Ha. There was actually an obscure point. That is, the people who turned into viruses didn't become ancestors. It's also an even more obscure reference to a Burroughs' schtick, which I won't repeat here.
pm90 7y ago
> (I don't know why you don't explode into viruses ten seconds after you enter the ocean, there must be a way that the maelstrom of evolution doesn't create monsters, eh? Or maybe we are playing Russian Roulette every time we go in the water?) If humans start living in contact with the oceans for long enough we might! Viruses may seem magical but as with life, its statistics over the long run. There might be viruses with mutations that cause them to annihilate humans; but those mutants may just never have had the chance to come in contact with us and thus die off, or at least don't multiply.

mirimir 7y ago

> I don't know why you don't explode into viruses ten seconds after you enter the ocean ... Basically, none of our ancestors did. Or vice versa, mutatis mutandis, and so on.

thaumasiotes 7y ago
If you're just slinging random Latin phrases around, you really missed your opportunity to end with et cetera.
- mirimir 7y ago
  Ha. There was actually an obscure point. That is, the people who turned into viruses didn't become ancestors. It's also an even more obscure reference to a Burroughs' schtick, which I won't repeat here.

pm90 7y ago

> (I don't know why you don't explode into viruses ten seconds after you enter the ocean, there must be a way that the maelstrom of evolution doesn't create monsters, eh? Or maybe we are playing Russian Roulette every time we go in the water?) If humans start living in contact with the oceans for long enough we might! Viruses may seem magical but as with life, its statistics over the long run. There might be viruses with mutations that cause them to annihilate humans; but those mutants may just never have had the chance to come in contact with us and thus die off, or at least don't multiply.