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> "In the few decades since viruses were first found in the oceans, scientists have only been able to identify a handful of species. A new survey has uncovered
by dj-wonk 11y ago
> "In the few decades since viruses were first found in the oceans, scientists have only been able to identify a handful of species. A new survey has uncovered nearly all the rest."
My first reaction was "What does 'nearly all the rest' mean and how can one come to such a conclusion?" The article is a basic but interesting writeup about Sullivan and his colleagues did to get there.
- dj-wonk 11y agoI'm concerned that the study may use "out of sample" reasoning in arriving at its virus population count estimate. Here is a snippet from the Quanta article showing some limitations of the sampling / collection methodology: > In addition, the scientists sequenced only viruses that use DNA to encode their genes. Some viruses, such as influenza and HIV, use RNA, a single-strand version of DNA, to encode their genes. By one estimate, as many as half of the viruses in the ocean are RNA viruses. What’s more, the Tara Oceans survey only took samples from the surface of the ocean. The deeper regions have viruses, too, as does the sediment at the bottom of the sea.