VIRUSES: MORE FRIENDS THAN FOES
Influenza, AIDS, and Ebola: Viruses are normally defined as pathogens. Most viruses are, however, not enemies or killers. Well-known virologist and cancer researcher Karin Moelling describes surprising insights about a completely new and unexpected world of viruses. Viruses are ubiquitous, in the oceans, our environment, in animals, plants, bacteria, in our body, even in our genomes. They influence our weather, can contribute to control obesity, and can surprisingly be applied against threatening multi-resistant bacteria. The success story of the viruses started more than 3.5 billion years ago in the dawn of life when even cells did not exist. They are the superpower of life. There are more viruses on earth than stars in the sky. Viruses are everywhere. Some of them are incredibly ancient. Many viruses are hundredfold smaller than bacteria, but others are tenfold bigger and they were discovered only recently — the giant viruses, even deep within the permafrost where they were reactivated after 30,000 years.The author talks about a completely new world of viruses, which are based on the most recent, in part her own research results. Could viruses have been our oldest ancestors? Have viruses even 'invented' social behavior, do they lead to geniuses such as Mozart or Einstein — or alternatively to cancer? They can help to cure cancer. In this book, the author made a clear distinction between what is fact and what is her vision. This book is written for a general audience and not just for the experts. Its aim is to stimulate thinking, and perhaps to attract more young scientists to enter this field of research.
1124787461
VIRUSES: MORE FRIENDS THAN FOES
Influenza, AIDS, and Ebola: Viruses are normally defined as pathogens. Most viruses are, however, not enemies or killers. Well-known virologist and cancer researcher Karin Moelling describes surprising insights about a completely new and unexpected world of viruses. Viruses are ubiquitous, in the oceans, our environment, in animals, plants, bacteria, in our body, even in our genomes. They influence our weather, can contribute to control obesity, and can surprisingly be applied against threatening multi-resistant bacteria. The success story of the viruses started more than 3.5 billion years ago in the dawn of life when even cells did not exist. They are the superpower of life. There are more viruses on earth than stars in the sky. Viruses are everywhere. Some of them are incredibly ancient. Many viruses are hundredfold smaller than bacteria, but others are tenfold bigger and they were discovered only recently — the giant viruses, even deep within the permafrost where they were reactivated after 30,000 years.The author talks about a completely new world of viruses, which are based on the most recent, in part her own research results. Could viruses have been our oldest ancestors? Have viruses even 'invented' social behavior, do they lead to geniuses such as Mozart or Einstein — or alternatively to cancer? They can help to cure cancer. In this book, the author made a clear distinction between what is fact and what is her vision. This book is written for a general audience and not just for the experts. Its aim is to stimulate thinking, and perhaps to attract more young scientists to enter this field of research.
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VIRUSES: MORE FRIENDS THAN FOES

VIRUSES: MORE FRIENDS THAN FOES

by Karin Moelling
VIRUSES: MORE FRIENDS THAN FOES

VIRUSES: MORE FRIENDS THAN FOES

by Karin Moelling

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Overview

Influenza, AIDS, and Ebola: Viruses are normally defined as pathogens. Most viruses are, however, not enemies or killers. Well-known virologist and cancer researcher Karin Moelling describes surprising insights about a completely new and unexpected world of viruses. Viruses are ubiquitous, in the oceans, our environment, in animals, plants, bacteria, in our body, even in our genomes. They influence our weather, can contribute to control obesity, and can surprisingly be applied against threatening multi-resistant bacteria. The success story of the viruses started more than 3.5 billion years ago in the dawn of life when even cells did not exist. They are the superpower of life. There are more viruses on earth than stars in the sky. Viruses are everywhere. Some of them are incredibly ancient. Many viruses are hundredfold smaller than bacteria, but others are tenfold bigger and they were discovered only recently — the giant viruses, even deep within the permafrost where they were reactivated after 30,000 years.The author talks about a completely new world of viruses, which are based on the most recent, in part her own research results. Could viruses have been our oldest ancestors? Have viruses even 'invented' social behavior, do they lead to geniuses such as Mozart or Einstein — or alternatively to cancer? They can help to cure cancer. In this book, the author made a clear distinction between what is fact and what is her vision. This book is written for a general audience and not just for the experts. Its aim is to stimulate thinking, and perhaps to attract more young scientists to enter this field of research.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9789813147843
Publisher: World Scientific Publishing Company, Incorporated
Publication date: 10/14/2016
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 420
File size: 3 MB

Table of Contents

Preface v

1 Viruses - not as you pictured them 1

Viruses - a success story 1

After the Big Bang 7

Instead of Adam and Eve 10

In the beginning were viruses 13

Looking back 14

A sailor and splicing 20

Viruses - dead or alive? 22

2 Viruses - how they make us ill 27

Viruses wrote history 27

HIV as an example 36

The Berlin patient and the Mississippi baby - cure HIV? 42

No vaccine against HIV? 44

"Naked DNA" 46

Microbicides as "condoms" for women 48

Driving HIV into "suicide" 49

The origin and future of HIV 51

3 Retroviruses and immortality 55

Reverse transcriptase - a personal retrospective 55

The RNase H - molecular scissors 62

RNase H and embryos 64

Telomerase and eternal life 65

Viruses as cellular nuclei? 69

Viruses for detecting viruses - the PGR 70

4 Viruses and cancer 73

The Tasmanian devil 73

Retroviral oncogenes 74

The sarcoma saga 76

Viral oncogenes without viruses - a paradox? 79

Viruses and cancer 81

Strange fatalities 87

Retroviruses as teachers of cancer research 88

The Myc protein and reactor accidents 92

Tumor suppressors and car crashes 96

Metastases - and how cells learn to run 99

-Ome and -Omics 100

Cancer - completely different? 103

23andMe - will I get breast cancer? 106

Viruses and prostate cancer? 109

5 Viruses that do not make us ill 112

An ocean full of viruses 112

Phages- the viruses of bacteria 116

A coat for the painter and a journal for the scientist 120

We are not alone - we are a superorganism 123

Cesarean section, milk and a "sushi" gene 126

Viruses against global warming and laying eggs 128

A virus full of wasp genes - is that a virus? 131

Prions - can do without genes 132

6 Viruses - "giant" as cells 136

Giant viruses of algae and a swimming ban in the Baltic 136

Amoebae viruses can tickle 139

Sputnik - viruses of viruses 142

XXL-sized viruses - the pandoraviruses 144

Two Guinness world records: the biggest viruses in the biggest cells 148

Can viruses see? 150

Archaea like it hot and salty 151

7 Viruses as fossils 156

Viruses inherited 156

Phoenix from the DNA 160

How koalas survive deadly viruses 162

Paleovirology 165

Crippled viruses 166

Cancer or geniuses from viruses? 171

Who built the DNA - viruses? 175

"Mrs. Mendel's" maize 179

Poisonous toys and epigenetics in Agouti mice 184

Sleeping beauty, ancient fish, platypus, and kois 186

A fence with empty spaces 188

ENCODE for understanding "junk-DNA" 191

8 Viruses - our oldest ancestors? 194

In the beginning was RNA 194

First chicken or egg? - Neither nor! 198

Viroids - the first viruses? 199

Viroids - illiterate all-rounders 201

Circles of RNA 204

Ribosomes are ribozymes - viruses make proteins! 206

Clover leaves 209

A protein as chaperone 211

From potato to the liver 213

Tobacco mosaic viruses 215

Viruses in "chili sauce" and my apple tree 218

Tulipomania: the first financial crisis caused by a virus 221

The 500 Deutschmark note with MS Merian 224

9 Viruses and antiviral defense 226

Fast and slow defense 226

No color by silent genes 230

Inheritable immune system in bacteria - and what about us? 235

Therapies imitating antiviral defense - CRISPR/Cas9 239

From horseshoe crabs and worms for immunization 244

Viruses and psyche 248

10 Viruses and Phages for survival? 250

The forgotten phages 250

Bean sprouts poisoned by phages 255

Which is dirtier, the refrigerator or the toilet? 257

The "Zurich Case" on fecal transfer 258

How to fight obesity 264

The Dutch Famine study 273

Elba worms outsource digestion 277

Ecosphere in a glass ball 278

11 Viruses for gene therapy 281

Viruses against viruses 281

A leaky door, Lipizzan horses, sheikhs - and publish or perish 288

"Mosquito vaccination" against viruses 292

Viruses for therapy of plants 293

Can viruses save the chestnut trees and bananas? 295

Fungi have sex instead of viruses 298

Stem cells - almost tumor cells? 302

Hydra's new head 308

12 Viruses and the future 312

Synthetic biology - dog or cat out of the test-tube? 312

Which came first - the virus or the cell? 316

Fast-runners and slow-progressors 322

Monsters in the test-tube 326

Lucky so far - but what about the end of the world? 330

"Social" viruses 332

A fantastic new "genetics" with sex hormones 334

Viruses for predicting the future? 338

Glossary 345

References 375

Illustrations Credit 393

Index 395

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