Platt, I'll split this into two halves. You said. > > Fascinating? Not to me.
Ian asks, how do you explain how and why they do mutate ? The you asked. > Do they mutate into something other than viruses? > > Yes or no. Yes, (but). I say but, because it is a matter of perspective - scale and time and probability. [IGNORE as an aside for now] You and I may never have seen one do it. No-one may have seen one do it in a human lifetime for all I know. Mostly their mutations are probably insignificant in any observable sense, some of the mutations will result in different viruses with different reactions with their biosphere (eg us humans and our health), but no reason why some should not mutate into forms which contain more life type characteristics. There are plenty of explanatory models of the evolution of life that postulate this, and cite "fossil record" evidence (in the broadest sense), and plenty that cite existing everyday processes in zygote and prion development that are entirely analogous by observation, ditto with certain funghi and their spores, ditto the symbiotic relationships between higher life-form hosts and their viral / bacterial "guests". But we don't need to go anywhere that complex yet - a step too far for now. [END IGNORE] Keeping it simple for now. A question Do you see any significant difference between say The common cold virus and the ebola virus ? (After all the are both "just" viruses) Yes or no. Ian moq_discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
