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What's a virus, anyway? The bare-bones basics

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Re: What's a virus, anyway? The bare-bones basics

#41

Post by codekilla »

dimtion wrote: post #25

Is there a a good read on how RNA and DNA work for a Computer Scientist? And more generally how biology, genetics, epigenetics, virus, etc work? Many vulgarization sources say that DNA is like the source code of life. But they mostly skim across the issue and go to conclusions like "this gene or set of genes are responsible for that outcome". But coming from a CS background that sounds a bit like non-sense. I feel li…

This is a good book along those lines:

https://www.amazon.com/Touchstone-Life-Information-Communica...

Re: What's a virus, anyway? The bare-bones basics

#42

Post by taylorlunt »

ethbro wrote: post #37
whatshisface wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Process reproduce (through forking) metabolize (stdin->stdout) and maintain homeostasis (garbage collection). How could they not be alive?

(Morally) Because reproduction without purpose is not life. Necessary but insufficient.

Then you must know the purpose of our lives. Enlighten me.

Re: What's a virus, anyway? The bare-bones basics

#44

Post by taylorlunt »

redindian75 wrote: post #14

> Is a virus a living thing? Maybe. Maybe Virus is akin to a SEED. Seeds are inert/dead by themselves, but it carries as all the code/DNA/instructions needed to spring to life, flourish & even reproduce infinitely when put in an friendly environment (nourished soil with water, O2 etc)

But a virus doesn't "spring to life." A virus is like a seed that just generates more seeds without ever making a plant.

Re: What's a virus, anyway? The bare-bones basics

#45

Post by lordnacho »

01100011 wrote: post #40
lordnacho wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can kill it in the sense that you stop it being a mutating replicator. That is pretty much the bare bones of life, an abstraction you can't get away from in defining life, but also one that encompasses things that aren't "life". It also applies to things like memes (both the original form from Dawkins and the internet form).

A virus is not a replicator. It is information and a transport system. The machinery of a living cell is the replicator. It seems pretty simple to me: viruses are not living. They are able to co-opt living systems into making more of themselves. A virus may gain life while it is inside of a cell, but why is that any different than the organic molecules which gain life when assembled into a cell? We don't say carbon i…

For something to be a replicator, what does that mean? Surely just that it somehow causes more of itself to be made, and has enough variability to change its descendants. A particular organic molecule like say a simple sugar doesn't fit this, because its structure is always the same. But a DNA strand can actually be any of many similar structures.

I think the distinction between what is doing the replication is spurious. The fact is even living replicators need some sort of base resource to exploit to pull off the feat. I could say that animals aren't replicators, because they inherently require other living creatures to be eaten in order to replicate.

Re: What's a virus, anyway? The bare-bones basics

#47

Post by chmaynard »

saagarjha wrote: post #24
krustyburger wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My instructor was Mr. Langley... and he taught me to sing a song. If you'd like to hear it I can sing it for you.

I'm not sure if I understand the reference, if there is one.

It's a reference to Stanley Kubrick's film "2001, A Space Odyssey". After the astronaut began disassembling HAL, HAL became child-like.

Re: What's a virus, anyway? The bare-bones basics

#48

Post by learnstats2 »

dimtion wrote: post #25

Is there a a good read on how RNA and DNA work for a Computer Scientist? And more generally how biology, genetics, epigenetics, virus, etc work? Many vulgarization sources say that DNA is like the source code of life. But they mostly skim across the issue and go to conclusions like "this gene or set of genes are responsible for that outcome". But coming from a CS background that sounds a bit like non-sense. I feel li…

DNA is literally only instructions for building proteins (each 'gene' commonly encodes one protein). It's a very low level code, then.

The various proteins that are built are actually interacting with the environment.

So, your desire to look at interaction with the environment might be better captured by a field other than genetics: maybe proteomics or molecular biochemistry.

Re: What's a virus, anyway? The bare-bones basics

#49

Post by RivieraKid »

dimtion wrote: post #25

Is there a a good read on how RNA and DNA work for a Computer Scientist? And more generally how biology, genetics, epigenetics, virus, etc work? Many vulgarization sources say that DNA is like the source code of life. But they mostly skim across the issue and go to conclusions like "this gene or set of genes are responsible for that outcome". But coming from a CS background that sounds a bit like non-sense. I feel li…

Part I of Molecular Biology of the Cell is the best read in my opinion, regardless whether you have a CS background.

Re: What's a virus, anyway? The bare-bones basics

#50

Post by biophysboy »

dimtion wrote: post #25

Is there a a good read on how RNA and DNA work for a Computer Scientist? And more generally how biology, genetics, epigenetics, virus, etc work? Many vulgarization sources say that DNA is like the source code of life. But they mostly skim across the issue and go to conclusions like "this gene or set of genes are responsible for that outcome". But coming from a CS background that sounds a bit like non-sense. I feel li…

Biophys grad student here. If I'm understanding your frustration correctly, you're basically saying: "yes for the 1000th time, I KNOW DNA is the recipe book, but who is the chef?" Well, I'm sorry to report that there are a lot of chefs. And to make things worse, every cell is different, so there are also a lot of restaurants. For this reason, it is not possible to make a book on any of the topics you listed above without skimming.

The solution to this is narrow your scope: is there a particular subtopic that interests you?

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