Giant Viruses Blur The Line Between Alive and Not

In 2003, microbiologists made a huge discovery. One that would force us to reconsider a lot of what we thought we knew about the evolution of microbial life: giant viruses.

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Produced by Complexly for PBS Digital Studios

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[brighid]

"They went from being a branch of the tree of life to a parasitic vine that wraps around it" such a poetic way of explaining this

[Master_Therion]

Being classified as a living organism is very popular. I'm not surprised it's gone viral.

[holdengoodall]

I loved the line describing viruses as a parasitic vine wrapping around the tree of life. The imagery it brings to mind is like Nidhogg in Norse mythology, gnawing at the world tree's roots.

[TragoudistrosMPH]

I love the way the two hypotheses were presented here, as well as the fact that we don't really know if maybe there's another possibility.

Scientific mystery is so much better than sensational mystery. Great writing :)

[ricardoludwig]

Considering how much parasites are able to simplify all across the tree of life, it wouldn't be that absurd for a parasite to reply so much on hijacking hosts that it loses its own ribosomes, but the other way around would also make sense

[nerdolo]

The idea of horizontal gene transfer being much wider and cross-domain than we thought is fascinating. Tree of life may just become all tangled and looped when it comes to microlife

[sandraleung]

Reminds me of the recent discovery of the giant bacterium found in a swamp in Guadeloupe, which has its own membrane-bound organelles!! Nature never ceases to amaze and humble us!

[kipper]

We love how open to true scientific mystery most Digital Studios shows are, its easy to forget nowadays that the driver of science is questions not answers

[InfinityOrNone]

For all the argument about viral life, a much better debate is if mitochondria are alive. I mean, they undergo cellular division (of a sort), have their own DNA and cellular machinery, and even have inarguably alive free-living relatives. Plus, they are the direct descendents of living organisms, and so _should_ be phylogenetically classed as living things independent of the rest of the eukaryotic cell they reside in.

[Triairius]

I’m new to this channel, but this woman is an _excellent_ speaker. I didn’t miss a single word, and she had my attention and interest from start to finish.

[lowie]

Something I will never forget from undergrad is a professor that referred to viruses as “something” that self replicates, not something alive. It blew my mind back then.

[MrMakae]

I really appreciate the small pauses in between sentences. It might sound like a very tiny detail, but it really helps me absorb and later recall the content. Great work.

[Twayver]

You've done episodes on blood and hearts (which are great), but I would love it if eons made an episode about the evolution of spines/notochords. Thank you for the great show!

[sethbest]

What I love about Eons is the combination of very simply explained complexities without dumbing down, with always being certain to explain the elements we don't know and the presence of alternative hypothesis. That they can do this in 10 minute videos is truly an art.

[mellanders]

I am a biologist. But, I have always felt that our definition of what is "alive" is the only reason viruses are not considered living organisms.

[plantguy]

Love to see Eons talk about virophages. Which are small viruses which are parasites of larger viruses.

[sarantis]

Excellent work, I love how much effort they put on putting together such explanatory videos of high scientific quality but also style. The narrators add to the whole thing. As a biologist I've been following this channel fiercely

[charlesjmouse]

It's a funny thing:
Us humans function through categorising everything, it's a necessary part of our cognition. One consequence is we tend to think the world around us really is made up of these categories and so we are continually surprised when things pop up that don't fit. This should be no surprise at all.

[cinderball]

Fortunately I'm not a giant, so I can't catch one of these viruses.

[PowerhouseCell]

This was so beautifully explained, I can't imagine all the hard work that must be put into these videos behind the scenes! Much love 💛